I crossed my knees. He bent over me and gave me a sharp tap below the knee with the side of his hand.
My chest may have disappointed him.... He may have disliked my back....
Possibly I was a complete failure with my pulses.... But I knew the knee-trick.
This time he should not be disappointed.
I was taking no risks. Almost before his hand reached my knee, my foot shot out and took him fairly under the chin. His face suddenly disappeared.
"I haven"t got _that_ disease," I said cheerily.
BACHELOR RELICS
"Do you happen to want," I said to Henry, "an opera hat that doesn"t op?
At least it only works on one side."
"No," said Henry.
"To any one who buys my opera hat for a large sum I am giving away four square yards of linoleum, a revolving book-case, two curtain rods, a pair of spring-grip dumb-bells, and an extremely patent mouse-trap."
"No," said Henry again.
"The mouse-trap," I pleaded, "is unused. That is to say, no mouse has used it yet. My mouse-trap has never been blooded."
"I don"t want it myself," said Henry, "but I know a man who does."
"Henry, you know everybody. For Heaven"s sake introduce me to your friend. Why does he particularly want a mouse-trap?"
"He doesn"t. He wants anything that"s old. Old clothes, old carpets, anything that"s old he"ll buy."
He seemed to be exactly the man I wanted.
"Introduce me to your fellow clubman," I said firmly.
That evening I wrote to Henry"s friend, Mr. Bennett. "Dear Sir," I wrote, "if you would call upon me to-morrow I should like to show you some really old things, all genuine antiques. In particular I would call your attention to an old opera hat of exquisite workmanship and a mouse-trap of chaste and handsome design. I have also a few yards of Queen Anne linoleum of a circular pattern which I think will please you.
My James the First spring-grip dumb-bells and Louis Quatorze curtain-rods are well known to connoisseurs. A genuine old cork bedroom suite, comprising one bath-mat, will also be included in the sale. Yours faithfully."
On second thoughts I tore the letter up and sent Mr. Bennett a postcard asking him to favour the undersigned with a call at 10.30 prompt. And at 10.30 prompt he came.
I had expected to see a bearded patriarch with a hooked nose and three hats on his head, but Mr. Bennett turned out to be a very spruce gentleman, wearing (I was sorry to see) much better clothes than the opera hat I proposed to sell him. He became businesslike at once.
"Just tell me what you want to sell," he said, whipping out a pocket-book, "and I"ll make a note of it. I take anything."
I looked round my s.p.a.cious apartment and wondered what to begin with.
"The revolving book-case," I announced.
"I"m afraid there"s very little sale for revolving book-cases now," he said, as he made a note of it.
"As a matter of fact," I pointed out, "this one doesn"t revolve. It got stuck some years ago."
He didn"t seem to think that this would increase the rush, but he made a note of it.
"Then the writing-desk."
"The what?"
"The Georgian bureau. A copy of an old twentieth-century escritoire."
"Walnut?" he said, tapping it.
"Possibly. The value of this Georgian writing-desk, however, lies not in the wood but in the literary a.s.sociations."
"Ah! My customers don"t bother much about that, but still--whose was it?"
"Mine," I said with dignity, placing my hand in the breast pocket of my coat. "I have written many charming things at that desk. My "Ode to a Bell-push," my "Thoughts on Asia," my----"
"Anything else in this room?" said Mr. Bennett. "Carpet, curtains----"
"Nothing else," I said coldly.
We went into the bedroom and, gazing on the linoleum, my enthusiasm returned to me.
"The linoleum," I said, with a wave of the hand.
"Very much worn," said Mr. Bennett.
I called his attention to the piece under the bed.
"Not under there," I said. "I never walk on that piece. It"s as good as new."
He made a note. "What else?" he said.
I showed him round the collection. He saw the Louis Quatorze curtain-rods, the cork bedroom suite, the Caesarian nail-brush (quite bald), the antique shaving-mirror with genuine crack--he saw it all. And then we went back into the other rooms and found some more things for him.
"Yes," he said, consulting his note-book. "And now how would you like me to buy these?"
"At a large price," I said. "If you have brought your cheque-book I"ll lend you a pen."
"You want me to make you an offer? Otherwise I should sell them by auction for you, deducting ten per cent commission."
"Not by auction," I said impulsively. "I couldn"t bear to know how much, or rather how little, my Georgian bureau fetched. It was there, as I think I told you, that I wrote my _Guide to the Round Pond_. Give me an inclusive price for the lot, and never, never let me know the details."
He named an inclusive price. It was something under a hundred and fifty pounds. I shouldn"t have minded that if it had only been a little over ten pounds. But it wasn"t.
"Right," I agreed. "And, oh, I was nearly forgetting. There"s an old opera hat of exquisite workmanship, which----"