t here."

The next minute Marie found herself looking into a cabinet where lay a
score or more of round and oval discs of glass, porcelain, and metal,
framed in silver, gilt, and brass, and mounted on long spikes.

"Oh, how pretty," cried Marie again; "but how--how queer! Tell me about
them, please."

William drew a long breath. His eyes glistened. William loved to
talk--when he had a curio and a listener.

"I will. Our great-grandmothers used them, you know, to support their
mirrors, or to fasten back their curtains," he explained ardently.
"Now here's another Battersea enamel, but it isn't so good as my new
ones--that face is almost a caricature."

"But what a beautiful ship--on that round one!" exclaimed Marie. "And
what's this one?--glass?"

"Yes; but that's not so rare as the others. Still, it's pretty enough.
Did you notice this one, with the bright red and blue and green on the
white background?--regular Chinese mode of decoration, that is."

"Er--any time, William," began Bertram, mischievously; but William did
not seem to hear.

"Now in this corner," he went on, warming to his subject, "are
the enamelled porcelains. They were probably made at the Worcester
works--England, you know; and I think many of them are quite as pretty
as the Batterseas. You see it was at Worcester that they invented
that variation of the transfer printing process that they called bat
printing, where they used oil instead of ink, and gelatine instead of
paper. Now engravings for that kind of printing were usually in stipple
work--dots, you know--so the prints on these knobs can easily be
distinguished from those of the transfer printing. See? Now, this one
is--"

"Er, of course, William, any time--" interposed Bertram again, his eyes
twinkling.

William stopped with a laugh.

"Yes, I know. 'Tis time I talked of something else, Bertram," he
conceded.

"But 'twas lovely, and I _was_ interested, really," claimed Marie.
"Besides, there are such a lot of things here that I'd like to see," she
finished, turning slowly about.

"These are what he was collecting last year," murmured Billy, hovering
over a small cabinet where were some beautiful specimens of antique
jewelry brooches, necklaces, armlets, Rajah rings, and anklets, gorgeous
in color and exquisite in workmanship.

"Well, here is something you _will_ enjoy," declared Bertram, with an
airy flourish. "Do you see those teapots? Well, we can have tea every
day in the ye