atter,--not no-wheres, sir."

"Hum!" said Bellew, and, having watched the dog-cart out of sight, he
turned and followed Adam into the stables.

And here, sitting upon a bale of hay, they smoked many pipes together in
earnest converse, until such time as the sale should begin.

As the day advanced, people began arriving in twos and threes, and,
among the first, the Auctioneer himself. A jovial-faced man, was this
Auctioneer, with jovial manner, and a jovial smile. Indeed, his
joviality seemed, somehow or other, to have got into the very buttons of
his coat, for they fairly winked, and twinkled with joviality. Upon
catching sight of the furniture he became, if possible, more jovial than
ever, and beckoning to his assistant,--that is to say to the small man
with the red nose and the blue chin, who, it seemed answered to the name
of Theodore,--he clapped him jovially upon the back,--(rather as though
he were knocking him down to some unfortunate bidder),--and immediately
fell into business converse with him,--albeit jovial still.

But all the while intending purchasers were arriving; they came on
horse, and afoot, and in conveyances of every sort and kind, and the
tread of their feet, and the buzz of their voices awoke unwonted echoes
in the old place. And still they came, from far and near, until some
hundred odd people were crowded into the hall.

Conspicuous among them was a large man with a fat, red neck which he was
continually mopping at, and rubbing with a vivid bandanna handkerchief
scarcely less red. Indeed, red seemed to be his pervading colour, for
his hair was red, his hands were red, and his face, heavy and round, was
reddest of all, out of whose flaming circumference two diminutive but
very sharp eyes winked and blinked continually. His voice, like himself,
was large with a peculiar brassy ring to it that penetrated to the
farthest corners and recesses of the old hall. He was, beyond all doubt,
a man of substance, and of no small importance, for he was greeted
deferentially on all hands, and it was to be noticed that people elbowed
each other to make way for him, as people ever will before substance,
and property. To some of them he nodded, to some he spoke, and with
others he even laughed, albeit he was of a solemn, sober, and serious
nature, as becomes a man of property, and substance.

Between whiles, however, he bestowed his undivided attention upon the
furniture. He sat down suddenly and heavily, in