five and twenty pounds for it, and this he was able to do, for his usual agent entered the room as he was on the point of leaving it.
That evening he rejoined his aunt at their temporary abode, which was a small dower-house not many hundred yards from the Manor. On the following morning the two resumed a discussion that had now lasted for some weeks as to the equipment of the new house. Mr. Denton laid before his relative a statement of the results of his visit to town—particulars of carpets, of chairs, of wardrobes, and of bedroom china. ‘Yes, dear,’ said his aunt, ‘but I don’t see any chintzes here. Did you go to——?’ Mr. Denton stamped on the floor (where else, indeed, could he have stamped?). ‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ he said, ‘the one thing I missed. I am sorry. The fact is I was on my way there and I happened to be passing Robins’s.’ His aunt threw up her hands. ‘Robins’s! Then the next thing will be another parcel of horrible old books at some outrageous price. I do think, James, when I am taking all this trouble for you, you might contrive to remember the one or two things which I specially begged you to see after. It’s not as if I was asking it for myself. I don’t know whether you think
