feign disappointment when the wares
were produced.

For what it was worth I circulated a covert recommendation of this
wile, which was acknowledged with sundry nods and inaudible
assurances--the latter, so far as Jill was concerned, too readily given
to inspire me with confidence.

Sure enough, when the lid of the trunk was lifted, and Planchet plucked
forth a truly exquisite rug and flung it dexterously across a chair, my
grey-eyed cousin let out a gasp which an infant in arms could not have
misinterpreted.

There was only one thing to be done, and Daphne did it.

With a heroic disregard for her reputation, she shook her head.

"Too bright," she said shortly. "Don't you think so?" she added,
turning to Berry.

The latter swallowed before replying.

"It's positively gaudy," he said gloomily.

Planchet shrugged his shoulders and began to unfasten a bale....

By the time seven more Persian rugs--all old and all more than
ordinarily pleasing in design and colouring--were sprawling about the
chamber, any organised depreciation was out of the question. Where all
were so beautiful, it required a larger output of moral courage than
any one of us could essay to decry the whole pack. By way of doing his
or her bit, everybody decided to praise one or two to the implied
condemnation of the remainder. In the absence of collusion, it was
inevitable that those rugs which somebody had thus branded as goats
should invariably include somebody else's sheep. The result was that
every single rug had its following. A glance at their owner, who was
standing aside, making no offer to commend his carpets, but fingering
his chin and watching us narrowly with quick-moving eyes, showed that
he was solely engaged in considering how much he dared ask.

I moved across to him.

"You only come here twice a year?" I inquired.

"That is so, _Monsieur_."

"And how do you get these things? By barter?"

"Yes, _Monsieur_."

After a little encouragement, he explained that before each voyage he
laid in a stock of knives, gramophones, mirrors, trinkets, and the
like, these to exchange with the natives in the bazaars of the smaller
Eastern ports at which his ship touched. From Bordeaux he used to set
out, and to Bordeaux he as regularly returned. An aunt dwelling at Pau
was responsible for his selection of the town as a market for his
goods. I should not have taken him for a sailor, and said as much.
With a shy smile, he confessed