“One thousand is bid!” he carolled.  “Now, gentlemen, I don’t want to hurry you over this.  You are all connoisseurs here, and you don’t want to see a priceless china figure of the Ming Dynasty get away from you at a sacrifice price.  Perhaps you can’t all see the figure where it is.  Willie, take it round and show it to ’em.  We’ll take a little intermission while you look carefully at this wonderful figure.  Get a move on, Willie!  Pick up your feet!”

Archie, sitting dazedly, was aware that Reggie van Tuyl had finished his beauty sleep and was addressing the young man in the seat in front.

“Why, hallo,” said Reggie.  “I didn’t know you were back.  You remember me, don’t you?  Reggie van Tuyl.  I know your sister very well.  Archie, old man, I want you to meet my friend, Bill Brewster.  Why, dash it!” He chuckled sleepily.  “I was forgetting.  Of course!  He’s your—­”

“How are you?” said the young man.  “Talking of my sister,” he said to Reggie, “I suppose you haven’t met her husband by any chance?  I suppose you know she married some awful chump?”

“Me,” said Archie.

“How’s that?”

“I married your sister.  My name’s Moffam.”

The young man seemed a trifle taken aback.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Not at all,” said Archie.

“I was only going by what my father said in his letters,” he explained, in extenuation.

Archie nodded.

“I’m afraid your jolly old father doesn’t appreciate me.  But I’m hoping for the best.  If I can rope in that rummy-looking little china thing that Jo-Jo the dog-faced boy is showing the customers, he will be all over me.  I mean to say, you know, he’s got another like it, and, if he can get a full house, as it were, I’m given to understand he’ll be bucked, cheered, and even braced.”

The young man stared.

“Are you the fellow who’s been bidding against me?”

“Eh, what?  Were you bidding against me?”

“I wanted to buy the thing for my father.  I’ve a special reason for wanting to get in right with him just now.  Are you buying it for him, too?”

“Absolutely.  As a surprise.  It was Lucille’s idea.  His valet, a chappie named Parker, tipped us off that the thing was to be sold.”

“Parker?  Great Scot!  It was Parker who tipped me off.  I met him on Broadway, and he told me about it.”

“Rummy he never mentioned it in his letter to me.  Why, dash it, we could have got the thing for about two dollars if we had pooled our bids.”

“Well, we’d better pool them now, and extinguish that pill at the back there.  I can’t go above eleven hundred.  That’s all I’ve got.”

“I can’t go above eleven hundred myself.”

“There’s just one thing.  I wish you’d let me be the one to hand the thing over to Father.  I’ve a special reason for wanting to make a hit with him.”

“Absolutely!” said Archie, magnanimously.  “It’s all the same to me.  I only wanted to get him generally braced, as it were, if you know what I mean.”