"A set of eight chairs, slightly restored, with your covers on ’em, the dead spit of the Pevensey chairs, would excite attention?" "More than we might want. I don’t see Bundy a biddin’ for our set without askin’ a lot of questions. He’d spot the repairs." "Right again. I put these questions, Joe, to have the pleasure of hearin’ you answer them as I would myself. In a sort o’ friendly fashion I look upon you, my boy, as my pupil." "Go on!" Tomlin’s large face brightened till it shone like a harvest moon. He had feared that his pupil would withhold those cheering progressive words. "Do you want to get back some o’ your hard-earned savings which you lost over that commode?" "Yes, I do." "Follow me close. James goes to work on the quiet with my chairs; he works alone in my room back o’ Wardour Street; he puts your covers on; and then we pass judgment on the completed set. If we’re satisfied, really satisfied, I don’t think we need to worry much about Bundy and Pressland. Lark—thank the Lord!—is losin’ his eyesight. When the chairs have passed our examination, they’ll go to Christopher’s. You can leave all that to me. Nobody will know that you and I have ever seen the chairs." "Nobody? How about James?" "Exactly. James must be squared. It’s time you raised his salary. I shall make him a handsome present. Remember, you’ll lend James to me for this little job. It don’t concern you." "You take James for a fool?" "Not me. James is a bit of a knave, but he knows which side his bread is buttered. If he was a fool I wouldn’t touch him with a bargepole. I’m afraid o’ fools. Now, we’ve got the chairs to Christopher’s, and we’ll choose a small day for the sale, some day when the big men are elsewhere." "Then who’ll bid for ’em?" "Me and you, my lad." He lay back in his chair, winked triumphantly, and laughed. Quinney was still puzzled. "Bid for our own chairs? Pay a thumpin’ commission to find ’em on our hands? Funny business!" "Joe, you ain’t quite as sharp as I thought you was. We two, and anybody else as likes, bid for the chairs. We bid up to nine hundred pounds. Christopher’s commission would be ninety o’ that. The chairs cost me fifty. What do you value them covers at?" "Five-and-twenty—thirty." "Call it thirty. Put James’s work at another thirty. That makes a round two hundred quid. What have we got to show for that? A set of eight chairs which have fetched nine hundred pounds at Christopher’s, with Christopher’s receipt to prove that the money was paid down for ’em. Christopher returns that nine hundred, less their com., to my agent, that is to us. You see to it that the buyin’ of the chairs by you is properly paragraphed. You have them on exhibition in this very room, and I bring a customer to whom you show Christopher’s receipt. Everything square and simple. My customer offers you eleven hundred. We share and share alike just nine hundred pounds. Four hundred and fifty each. No risks!"