Page:The Van Roon (IA thevanroon00snaiiala).pdf/157

 She was shrewd enough to size up the position at once. Reading the purpose in the heart of Uncle Si she told him plainly that much as she disliked her present address she did not propose to change it until her lawful property had been restored to her.

"You are going to leave this place within an hour, my girl, for good and all."

"I shall not," said June flatly. "Until you give me the picture, I don't intend to stir."

"The picture is not yours. You are not a fit person to have it. And if you don't go quietly your box will be put into the street."

"Dare to touch my box again, and I shall go straight to the police."

Uncle Si didn't care a straw for the police. She had not the slightest claim upon him; in fact she was living on his charity. As for the picture, it had nothing whatever to do with the matter.

At this point it was that William came out in his true colours. He had been standing by, unwilling witness of these passages. Anxiously concerned, he could no longer keep silent.

"Beg your pardon, sir," he said, stammering painfully, and flushing deeply, "but if Miss June leaves the house, I'm afraid I'll have to go as well."

This was a thunderbolt. S. Gedge Antiques opened his mouth in wide astonishment. He gasped like a carp. The atmospheric displacement was terrific. Slowly the old man took off his "selling" spectacles, and replaced them with his "buying" ones. Certainly the effect was to make him look a shade less truculent, but at the moment there was no other result. "Boy, don't talk like a fool," was all he could say.