accepting his judgment about anything. He was very set upon not having
anything in his house that was not genuine. Now under any other
circumstances, mind you, I should have had my doubts about that suite,
but if you can assure me that it came from Dr. Transome's house, why,
there's no more to be said about it. I'm a bidder."

Burton shook his head gravely.

"I am sorry," he declared, "but the frontispiece of the catalogue is
certainly a little misleading. To tell you the truth, sir, there are
very few articles here from Dr. Transome's house at all. The bulk of
his effects were distributed among relatives. What we have here is a
portion of the kitchen and servant's bedroom furniture."

"Then where on earth did all this dining-room and library furniture come
from?" the old gentleman demanded.

Burton looked around him and back again at his questioner. There was no
evading the matter, however.

"The great majority of it," Burton admitted, "has been sent in to us for
sale from dealers and manufacturers."

The little old gentleman was annoyed. Instead of being grateful, as he
ought to have been, he visited his annoyance upon Burton, which was
unreasonable.

"Deliberate swindling, sir--that's what I call it," he proclaimed,
rolling up the catalogue and striking the palm of his hand with it.
"All the way from Camberwell I've come, entirely on the strength of what