A Buyer's Market Summary

Jenkins attends an estate sale at the home of Mr. Deacon, a man who lived in the same neighborhood with the Jenkinses when Nicholas Jenkins was a small boy. Jenkins notes that Deacon had not particularly liked children but that he had had occasional conversations with his parents. Jenkins describes some aspects of the sale at Deacon's house, including the presence of several paintings. Though they are not very good, Jenkins is relieved when no one laughs or makes derogatory remarks. Jenkins compares Deacon with his Uncle Giles, saying that they are somewhat alike in some aspects of temperament. Jenkins then skips back in time to when Deacon was alive and the Jenkins family encounter him at the Louvre. Some six years after that encounter at the Louvre, Jenkins sees a painting at the home of Sir Gavin Walpole-Wilson...