"The young folk!" he wheezed--"the young folk! The old story! The time comes when they must leave the nest. My little bird"--here he laid a palsied hand upon the shoulder of Peggy, who choked noisily--"has flown away at last. It took her a long time to find her wings,--at one time I thought she was never going to do it,--but all's well that ends well, as Will Shakespeare puts it. My little bird has found a nest of her own--with honest John, here; and damme! her old grandad is going to furnish it for her! Are these your dining-room suites? They don't make furniture like they did in my young days, when Bob Chippendale and Nick Sheraton were alive. I remember--" "I like this oak table very much," said Miss Leslie to Philip, in a high and trembling voice. "I wonder if there are chairs to match it." But before any business could be transacted the irrepressible octogenarian was off again. "Dearest Pamela," he said affectionately to Miss Leslie, "how well I remember the day that we two bought our wedding furniture together! We made a handsome couple, you and I. You wore a crinoline, with a black bombazine tippet; and I was in nankeen overalls and a fob. I was a mad wag in those days: I remember I offered to fight the shopman to decide the price of a harpsichord--or was it a spinet?--that I considered he asked too much for. But times have changed. I suppose you never fight your customers now to save chaffering, young man? If you do, all honour to you! I like to see ancient customs kept up." He surveyed the flinching vendor of dining-room suites with puckered eyes. "I am an old fellow now, and I fear I would hardly give you full measure. But if you have any inclination for a bout with the mufflers,"--a relentless hand descended upon the fermenting Philip and drew him forward,--"my son-in-law here, honest John--" But the manager, murmuring something inarticulate about a telephone-call, turned tail and fled, his place being taken by a man of more enduring fibre. And so on. They got home about six, having purchased an imitation walnut wardrobe which they did not want. "We simply _had_ to buy something after all that," said honest John. * * * * * A week later the flat was sufficiently furnished to be habitable, and the new tenants moved in.