ke they would got something to sell,
understand me, and was doing their level best to sell it."

"You're quite right, Mr. Lubliner," the clerk commented, "and that's the
reason why I came down here. In fact," he added with a guilty smile, "I
made a date to show some of my lots to-morrow to a prospective
customer."

At this juncture a porter appeared bearing a basket of champagne and
followed by two waiters with ice buckets, and the room clerk jerked his
head sideways in the direction toward which the little procession had
disappeared.

"That's for Suite 27, the Feldmans' rooms," he explained. "Miss Feldman
is giving a little chafing-dish dinner there to Mr. Scharley and a few
friends."

He accepted with a graceful nod Elkan's proffered cigar.

"Which goes to show that it's as you say, Mr. Lubliner," he concluded.
"If you have drygoods, real estate or marriageable relatives to dispose
of, Mr. Lubliner, Egremont's the place to market them."

* * * * *

"Yes, Mr. Williams," said Jacob Scharley at two o'clock the following
afternoon as they trudged along the sands of Bognor Park, one of
Egremont Beach's new developments, "I was trying to figure out how these
here Chinese Lantern Dinners stands in a sucker like Leon Sammet twenty
dollars a head, when by the regular bill of fare it comes exactly to
seven dollars and fifty cents including drinks."

"You can't figure on a special dinner according to the prices on the
regular bill of fare," said Mr. Williams, the room clerk, who in
his quality of real-estate operator was attempting to shift the
conversation from hotel matters to the topic of seaside lots. "Why, ice
cream is twenty-five cents on the bill of fare, but at one of those
dinners it's served in imitation Chinese lanterns, which makes it worth
double at least."

"For my part," Scharley broke in, "they could serve it in kerosene
lamps, Mr. Williams, because I never touch the stuff."

"It's a parallel case to lots here and lots on Mizzentop Beach, which is
the next beach below," Williams continued. "Here we have a boardwalk
extending right down to our property, and we are getting seven hundred
and fifty dollars a lot, while there, with practically the same transit
facilities but no boardwalk or electric lights, they get only four
hundred and----"

"_Aber_ you take a piece of tenderloin steak a half an inch thick and
about the size of a price ticket, understand me," Scharley interrupted