The girl clasped her hands tightly. "Oh, it _is_," she said under her
breath. "It is."

Uncle William looked down almost jealously. "You set a good deal o'
store by seein' him," he said.

"It isn't that. I like him, yes, but he knows good work. If he really
takes them in, he'll not let them go."

Uncle William adjusted his spectacles again. "You mean--"

"He will buy them, yes. Hush!" She held out her hand.

The man had turned back to the pictures. He lifted a pair of eyeglasses
that swung at the end of a long chain and placed them on his nose. He
looked again at the picture before him. The glasses dropped from his
nose, and he dipped to the catalogue he held in his hand.

Uncle William's glance followed him a little uneasily. "You mean he'll
buy my house?" he asked.

She nodded, her face overflowing with happiness.

Uncle William surveyed it. "I was cal'atin' to have that one myself." He
said it almost grudgingly.

"You were? Could you?" she faced him.

"Couldn't I have it as well as him?" He nodded toward the man in the
distance intent on his catalogue.