Page:The Van Roon (IA thevanroon00snaiiala).pdf/135

 *vately, I think they are overrated. The Flemish School is being run to death, but of course, that's only my opinion."

"Would it be worth a hundred pounds?"

"What! A Van Roon!" The man laughed. "My good girl, you might multiply a hundred pounds by a hundred, and then think you had got 'some' bargain if you found yourself the owner of a Van Roon."

"This mightn't be a good one." June spoke cautiously. She saw at once that it would be wise "to go slow."

"All Van Roons are good, you know. But some, of course, are a bit better than others."

"I've been told it is one of the best," said June, after a moment's deliberation.

"Which are you talking about? The one in the National Gallery, I suppose. That's the only Van Roon in this country. The Americans have robbed us of three within the last ten years."

"Yes, I've heard so," said June, with a wise air.

"In my humble opinion, it can't be compared with the chap in the Louvre, and they say that its stable companion, which was cut out of its frame back in the Nineties, and has never been found, is even finer."

"Still you think it's very valuable?"

"The one in the National Gallery? Sure! It wouldn't be there, you know, if it wasn't. The Flemish School is booming these days, and Van Roon is the pick of the bunch, and the least prolific. Tell me," the man's small and rather furtive eyes began to twinkle, "why are you so interested in Van Roons? Is it, by any chance, that you've got one for sale?" And