"Not going to stay here to be swindled!" she declared loudly, looking
around her. "Colored lithograph, indeed, and put down in the catalogue
as an interesting oil painting! They must think us folks don't know
nothing. Cheating's the word, I say--cheating!"

The woman's eye met the eye of Mr. Waddington as she stood for a moment
in the doorway before taking her departure. She raised her fist and
shook it.

"Bah!" she exclaimed. "Ought to be ashamed of yourself! You and your
h'oil paintings!"

Mr. Waddington was too far off to hear her words but the character of
her farewell was unmistakable! He glanced suspiciously towards his
chief clerk. Burton, however, had at that moment been button-holed by a
fidgety old gentleman who desired to ask him a few questions.

"I am a little puzzled, sir," the old gentleman said, confidentially,
"about the absolute authenticity of this chippendale suite--lot number
101 in the catalogue. This sale is--er--um--advertised as being--" the
old gentleman turned over the pages of the catalogue quickly--"a sale of
the effects of the late Doctor Transome. That's so, eh?"

"I believe the announcement is to that effect," Burton confessed,
hesitatingly.

"Quite so," the little old gentleman continued. "Now I knew Dr.
Transome intimately, and he was, without the slightest doubt, a rare
judge of old furniture. I wouldn't mind following him anywhere, or