Suppose you tell us
all you know about both."
The dark face of Brolatsky became thoughtful.
"Mr. Hume was a hard man to get along with," he said. "He seemed ready
to quarrel at any time with anybody. I don't recall a customer ever
coming into the store that he didn't have some kind of trouble with
before they went out. But he had a great knowledge of the things he
dealt in. People came from far and near to get his opinion on items in
their collections. His fees," with appreciation, "were large.
"But there is one thing that I noticed about him. While he knew all
about objects of art, he did not seem to care for them. He had no love
for his trade, no sympathy, I may say, for the collectors who came to
him. I wouldn't be going far from the truth if I said that he thought
them all fools for paying their money for such things. And I _know_
that he mocked them."
"Humph!" Stillman looked at Ashton-Kirk, with surprise upon his face.
"That seems odd. Men usually go into Hume's business through love of
it." He turned once more to Brolatsky. "And he had no hobby of his
own, no collection that he fancied more than another?"
Brolatsky nodded amusedly.
"Yes," he replied. "I was just coming to that. He _did_ have a
collection that he called his own.
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