"He's calling."
"Mine," said the young man.
She turned to follow, but the door closed between them.
* * * * *
To the firm of Messrs. Ridgewell, Ridgewell, Hitchcock and Plum was
given the task of disposing of the furniture and effects of the late
Sabina Prestwich, spinster, of 22a Cambridge Avenue, Hyde Park, W.
As Mr. Ridgewell, junior, remarked to Mr. Plum while engaged in
compiling the sale list and supplying appropriate encomiums to describe
an upright grand by Rubenthal, Berlin: "Victorian muck! Lucky if we
clean up two-fifty on the lot."
Mr. Plum was disposed to agree. "Though I must say," he added, "it
wouldn't surprise me if that picture was worth a bit. Half a mind to
let old Kineagie have a squint at it."
"Please yourself," responded Mr. Ridgewell, junior, "but to my mind
it's ten guineas for nix."
It was the chance discovery of an old document amongst a litter of
receipts and papers that persuaded them to engage an expert opinion.
The document stated that the picture had been discovered bricked up in
a Florentine cellar some fifty years before and had been successfully
smuggled out of Italy.
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