And eventually they did buy them; and then they bade their tempter adieu and went across the road to look into furniture. Well, the furnishing of a room is always more or less a matter of taste, a matter of individual taste, I may say, and the two girls that afternoon displayed their individual taste in a most extraordinary manner. They bought the most curious and unnecessary articles. First of all they fell in love with a most elaborate over-mantel, which was ready to be enameled in any color that the purchaser desired, or which might be stained to simulate oak. For its centre it had a square of looking-glass with beveled edges, and it had many little cupboards and shelves and pillars. It was a most elaborate creation. Then Maudie fell in love with a couple of Japanese vases. They were exceedingly meretricious in their art; they were the most modern specimens of that style of Japanese handicraft which is produced exclusively for the English market. The English have much to answer for, and the prostitution of Japanese art, like the prostitution of art in India, is among the sins for which one day England will surely be called upon to justify herself. The price of these vases was twelve-and-nine-pence. You know perhaps what it is to buy your first piece of porcelain, either new or old. It's like that first downward step out of the rigid paths of honesty which leads eventually to the gallows. The Whittaker girls took the step at a jump. The consequences were disastrous. Oh, the rubbish they bought that day, the absurd little tables that turned over almost with being looked at, the ridiculous plant stands, the preposterous little cupboards for hanging on the wall. Then they must needs have a horrible curtain of reeds and beads and string, and a three-fold screen, which was a marvel of cheapness because it was the last one left in stock. Then their taste went to Venetian glass--such Venetian glass!--some modern faïence from Rouen, and some Wedgewood which surely would cause the originator of that great art to turn in his grave could he have beheld it. Fans they bought also, and a gypsy pot for a coal pan, and then they remembered that they must have a fender, and they did themselves rather nicely in a black curb with a brass railing. Then they reminded each other that they must have a set of fireirons, and then they went off to see the basket chairs. "They're very ugly," said Maudie. "And they're not very comfortable," rejoined Julia. "But there, we have spent such a lot of money already that we certainly must get our chairs before we think of anything else." "And we have no small chairs." "No, we haven't. I don't know where we shall get small chairs--we can't possibly afford expensive ones." "If I were you, ladies, I should go and look in the second-hand furniture department," suggested the young lady who was convoying them round the basket department.