Some further conversation ensued, and at last the dealer showed himself to be less inflexible than he had been at first, and the customer secured one of the mediaeval curiosities for four pounds. A few days later another customer called and duly inspected the four remaining dolls. “Very curious, sir--very unique, I think. Of course you see the idea, sir--the Four Seasons. Fifteenth-century Venetian, I should say. You can see the bit of brocade--old Venetian beyond a question. I wish I had half a dozen yards of it. Twenty guineas I'm asking for the set. I'm afraid I couldn't break the set. It's hardly fair to ask me, sir.” But eventually he yielded to the importunity of the customer and got five guineas for a second of his creations. “Singular things, sir--Early Italian Church puppets beyond doubt. They used to dress them fantastically and stand them on the altar, I believe. You observe the symbolic character of the set, sir--the Trinity. Votive offerings and that, you know. Even in the present day you see such things at wayside shrines in Catholic countries. I'm afraid it would spoil the set to sell one out of the three, sir. You had better take the three now that you have the chance. Very unique, I call them, and only eighteen pounds for the three.” But the man had no use for the three, and after some haggling he got the one he wanted for £5, 10s. “And then there were two,” as the story of the ten little nigger boys has it. “Church pieces, madam. Fourteenth-century Spanish--the embroidery is Spanish, I am sure. I wish I had a yard of it. Adam and Eve they are meant to represent,” etc. etc. It seemed as if no one could do with more than one of these “very unique” treasures; so he was forced to let the lady separate our first parents, paying five pounds for making the divorce decree absolute. Before the end of the week he had sold a unique example of a Flemish doll--“One may see the like in some of Teniers' pictures. They treasure them up from generation to generation in the houses of the old nobility. It is very rarely that one gets into the market. You see they regard it as a matter of family honour never to sell one of them.” He sold it for six pounds, and took his wife to a theatre where, curiously enough, the diverting play of _La Poupée_ was being performed. It is a diverting play, but not, I think, “absolutely unique.” It will be gathered from these instances of local business enterprise how amply the modern spirit of making the most of one's opportunities of “getting on” is represented among the commercial population of Burford. Its manufacturers may be divided into two classes: the makers and the fakers, and it is generally understood that the latter make the most money. CHAPTER NINE--RED-TILED SOCIETY I.--THE ILLUSTRIOUS STRANGER