-dot Fudge dog
don't bite--go away, you. T'ank you for lettin' me see it, tell Mr.
Blobbs, but I don't vant it at dot price. And I doan know I vant it at
any price. Dey doan buy dem t'ings any more."

Dalton saw that the mantilla had favorably impressed the dealer. He had
caught the look of pleasure when the lace was first unrolled, reading
the man's brain as he had often read the brains of the men at home who
listened to some rose-colored prospectus. These experiences had taught
him that there was always a supreme moment when one must stop praising
an article for sale, whether it were a rubber concession from an African
chief or a pound of tea over a grocer's counter. This moment had arrived
with Kling.

"I agree with you," he said smilingly. "The valuation was Mr. Blobbs's,
not mine. I told him I should be glad to get half that amount--or even
less."

Otto took the bundle and loosened the roll again. "I got a little girl,
Beesving--dot was her dog make such foolishness--who likes dese t'ings.
But dot is not business, for I doan sell it again once I gif it to her.
I joost put it around her shoulders for a New Year's gift. Maybe if
you--" He re-examined it closely, especially the tear, which had partly
yielded to Lady Barbara's deft fingers and tired eyes. "Vell, I tell you
vot I do, I gif you tventy tollars."

"That, I am afraid, will not answer my purpose," said Dalton. "Perhaps,
however, you will loan me thirty dollars on it and hold the lace for a
week or so, and I will pay you back thirty-five when some money that is
due me comes in?"

Otto looked at him from under his bushy eyebrows. "Ve don't do dot kind
of business. If I buy--I buy. If I sell--I sell. Sometimes I pay more as
a t'ing is vorth. Sometimes I pay less. I have a expert vid me who knows
vat dis is vorth, but he is busy vid a customer on de next floor, and I
doan sent for him. If you vant de tventy tollars you can have it. If you
doan, den take avay de lace. I got a lot of t'ings to do more as to talk
about it. Ven you see Blobbs, you tell him vat I say."

Dalton's mind worked rapidly. To take the money would clean off his debt
and leave him a margin which he might treble before midnight.

"Give me the money," he said. "It is not one-third of its value, but I
see that it is all I can do."

Otto smiled--the smile of a man who had hit the thing at which he
aimed--felt in his inside pocket, drew out a great flat pocketbook, and
counted out the bi