"Of course, Mr. Rawn, I'd be willing to do anything I could," she said. "I know the city pretty well, having lived here for some time. If you would rather have me use my time in that way, it would be a great pleasure. I like nice things myself, though of course I could never have them. I've just had to flatten my nose against the window-pane!" She laughed, a low and even little burst of laughter, rippling; the most personal thing she ever had been guilty of doing in the office--then checked herself, colored, and resumed her perfect calm.
"Never mind about your other duties. Take any time you like. Go see what you can find me in this town."
"Well, take china. I shouldn't mind having some ornamental jars, vases--that sort of thing, you know."
"China's difficult, Mr. Rawn--one of the most difficult things into which one can go. There's a terrible range in it, you see. It can be cheap or very expensive, very grotesque or very beautiful. There are not many who know china. I suppose we mean porcelains?"
"Yes, I know. But what would you suggest, for instance, for my large central room, which opens out upon the lake?"
"About everything the confounded builders and decorators could think of," said Rawn frankly. "I think they called it a gray-and-silver motive. I know there's something in white, with dark red for the doors and facings."
Miss Delaware sat for a moment, a pencil against her lip, engaged in thought.
"Well," said she at length, "I'm sure almost any of the good houses would send you up what you liked. There's everything in accord. You don't want anything that will 'swear,' as the phrase goes. If I were in your place, I would select a few really good pieces, and try them in place, in the rooms."
"Yes, yes! But where'll I get them? How will I find them? That's why--"
"Mr. Rawn, there is really only one good selection in Oriental porcelains in town to-day. The large shops have their art rooms, of course, but they're horrible, for the most part, although most of our 'best people' buy there--because they're fashionable. There's a little man on ---- street. I just happened to see the things in his window as I went by one day. He has some beautiful pieces."
"Much higher than you would need to pay at any of the larger places, because these are genuine. None of them ever had such pieces as these--they wouldn't know them when they saw them. You must remember, Mr. Rawn, that if a piece of porcelain were only worth two dollars a thousand years ago, and it was one, say, of a thousand others just like it at that time, the loss by breakage of the other duplicates, and the lowest kind of compound interest from then till now, would warrant almost any sort of price you'd care to put on a real work of art--one that has come down from so long a time ago."