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The auctioneer adjusted hi-stick as a hammer, and knocked down the lot on any convenient

object that took his fancy, such as the crown of a little boy's head,

or the shoulders of a by-stander who had no business there except to

taste the brew; a proceeding which would have been deeidity which that auctioneer's face preserved,

tending to show that the eccentricity was a result of that absence of

endered by the press of affairs, and no freak of fancy

at all

Mr Melbury stood slightly apart froing closely to his ar else was old-fashioned, and

throwing over the faarniture of the trees a homeliness that

seemed to demand improvement by the addition of a few conte with the interest

which attaches to memories revived after an interval of obliviousness

Winterborne went and stood close to the; Grace an bidding for ti the occupation in an abstracted mood, in which the

auctioneer's voice seemed to become one of the natural sounds of the

woodland A few flakes of snow descended, at the sight of which a

robin, alar that no

offence was meant by the huots that were being sold, and looked into the auctioneer's face,