Manisty sent the ladies downstairs, and the bargaining began.
When he came downstairs ten minutes later a small basket was in his hand.
He offered it to Lucy, while he held out his other hand to Eleanor.

The hand contained two fragments only, but of exquisite quality, one a fine Artemis head with the Cybele crown, the other merely the mask or shell of a face, from brow to chin,--a gem of the purest and loveliest Greek work.
Eleanor took them with a critical delight.

Her comments were the comments of taste and knowledge.

They were lightly given, without the smallest pedantry, but Manisty hardly answered them.

He walked eagerly to Lucy Foster, whose shy intense gratitude, covering an inward fear that he had spent far, far too much money upon her, and that she had indecorously provoked his bounty, was evidently attractive to him.