Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/116

102 covertly studying signs. "Well," he presently said, "in view of the very great interest combined with the very great rarity, more than—ah more than can be estimated off-hand."

It made Lord Theign turn round. "But a fine Moretto has a very great rarity and a very great interest."

"Yes—but not on the whole the same amount of either."

"No, not on the whole the same amount of either!"—Mr. Bender judiciously echoed it. "But how," he freely pursued, "are you going to find out?"

"Have I your permission, Lord Theign," Hugh brightly asked, "to attempt to find out?"

The question produced on his lordship's part a visible, a natural anxiety. "What would it be your idea then to do with my property?"

"Nothing at all here—it could all be done, I think, at Verona. What besets, what quite haunts me," Hugh explained, "is the vivid image of a Mantovano—one of the glories of the short list—in a private collection in that place. The conviction grows in me that the two portraits must be of the same original. In fact I'll bet my head," the young man quite