bes, third-rate auctioneers and house agents, might have
been expected to select. He dangled a bunch of keys in his hand.

"If this house don't suit you, sir," he declared, confidently, "why,
there isn't one in the whole west-end that will. That's my opinion,
anyway. There's nothing in our books to compare with it for value and
accommodation. We nearly let it last week to Lord Leconside, but Her
Ladyship--she came round with me herself--decided that it was just a
trifle too large. As a matter of fact, sir," this energetic young man
went on, confidentially, "the governor insisted upon a deposit and it
didn't seem to be exactly convenient. It isn't always these people with
titles who've got the money. That we find out in our business, sir, as
quickly as anybody. As for the steam heating you were talking about,
Mr. Lynn, why, that's all very well for New York," he continued,
persuasively, "but over here the climate doesn't call for it--you can
take it from me that it doesn't, indeed, Mr. Lynn. I have the letting
in my hands of as many houses as most people, and you can take it from
me, sir, as the direct result of my experience, that over here they
won't have it--won't have it at any price, sir. Most unhealthy we find
it, and always produces a rare crop of colds and coughs unknown to those
that are used to an honest coal fire. It's all a matter of climate,
sir, after all, isn't it?"

The young man paused to take breath. His client, who had been listening
attentively in gloomy but not unappreciative silence, removed his cigar
from his mouth. He was a middle-aged American with a wife and daughters
on their way over from New York, and his business was to take a house
before they arrived. It wasn't a job he liked, but he was making the
best of it. This young man appealed to his sense of business.

"Say," he remarked, approvingly, "you've learned how to talk in your
trade!"

Stimulated by this encouragement, Alfred Burton clapped on his hat a
little more securely, took a long breath, and went at it again.

"Why, I'm giving myself a rest this morning, sir!" he declared. "I
haven't troubled to tell you more than the bare facts. This house
doesn't need any talking about--doesn't need a word said about it. Her
Ladyship's last words to us were--Lady Idlemay, you know, the owner of
the house--'Mr. Waddington and Mr. Burton,' she said--she was speaking
to us both, for the governor always introduces me to clients as being
the one