Page:The Van Roon (IA thevanroon00snaiiala).pdf/66



The next morning Foxy Face, true to the appointment he had made with S. Gedge Antiques, came at ten o'clock with a friend. A quarter before that hour William had been sent to the King's Road, Chelsea, in quest of a Jacobean carving-table for which his master had a customer.

June, in anticipation of the event, took care to be busy in a distant corner of the shop when these gentlemen arrived. As on the occasion of Louis Quinze-*legs' previous visit, Uncle Si lost no time in going himself to fetch the picture, but his prompt return was fraught for June with bitter disappointment. By sheer ill luck, as it seemed, his stern eye fell on her at the very moment he gave the picture to Mr. Thornton's friend, a morose-looking man in a seedy frock coat and a furry topper.

"Niece," sharply called S. Gedge Antiques, "go and do your dusting somewhere else."

There was no help for it. June could almost have shed tears of vexation, but she had to obey. The most she dared venture in the way of appeasing a curiosity that had grown terrific was to steal back on tiptoe a few minutes later, to retrieve a pot of furniture polish she had been clever enough to leave behind. Like a mouse she crept back for it, but Uncle Si flashed upon her such a truculent eye that, without trying to catch a word that was passing, she simply fled.