Look!'
The bidding continued. Fashionable purchasers crowded round the table,
vieing with each other in artistic and critical comparisons between the
Giottoesque Nativities and Annunciations. Into this atmosphere of
mustiness and antiquity the ladies brought the perfume of their furs,
and more especially of the violets which each one wore on her muff,
according to the then prevailing charming fashion, and their presence
diffused a delicious air of warmth and fragrance. Outside, the rain
continued to fall, and the light to fade. Here and there a little flame
of gas struggled feebly with such daylight as remained.
'Going--going--gone!' The stroke of the hammer put Lord Humphrey
Heathfield in possession of the Florentine helmet. The bidding then
began for smaller articles, which passed in turn from hand to hand down
the long table. Elena handled them carefully, examined them, and placed
them in front of Andrea without remark. There were enamels, ivories,
eighteenth century watches, Milanese goldsmiths' work of the time of
Ludovico the Moor, Books of Hours inscribed in gold letters on pale blue
vellum. These precious things seemed to increase in value under the
touch of Elena's fingers; her little hands had a faint tremor of
eagerness when they came in contact with some specially desirable
object. Andrea watched them intently, and his imagination transformed
every movement of her hands into a caress.
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