"No you won't--you'll stay right where you are. And you're going to
disgorge, too--this time."

Washington innocently offered to go and look. When he was gone the
Colonel said:

"The fact is, I've got to throw myself on your indulgence just this once
more, Suggs; you see the remittances I was expecting--"

"Hang the remittances--it's too stale--it won't answer. Come!"

The Colonel glanced about him in despair. Then his face lighted; he ran
to the wall and began to dust off a peculiarly atrocious chromo with his
handkerchief. Then he brought it reverently, offered it to the
collector, averted his face and said:

"Take it, but don't let me see it go. It's the sole remaining Rembrandt
that--"

"Rembrandt be damned, it's a chromo."

"Oh, don't speak of it so, I beg you. It's the only really great
original, the only supreme example of that mighty school of art which--"

"Art! It's the sickest looking thing I--"

The colonel was already bringing another horror and tenderly dusting it.

"Take this one too--the gem of my collection--the only genuine Fra