CHAPTER xx

PRECISELY as the clock struck two p.m. on October
the second Kahn would open his shop, and
this because two and two make four, which he always
considered his lucky number. From an early hour
on that autumn morning a youth was distributing
circulars announcing the event to all who would
take them; a stranger he was who had come from
Paris, and his open-necked shirt exposed a skin of
such whiteness when compared with the sun-bronzed
skins of the south, that it looked positively indecent.
However, he was smart enough at his job and by
noon nearly everyone down at the port had received
the news that Anatole Kahn would display a superb
and unique collection of furniture at popular prices
— Louis Quinze and Louis Seize not excepted.
Goundran smiled rather ruefully to himself as he
scanned the long list of advertised objects; he must
keep Elise's hand out of his pocket. But all the same
he took the thing home.
€We will go,' said his wife with unusual decision.
Then: CI see there are clocks. . . .*
*Yes, and pictures,5 added Goundran.
'And brass bedsteads;5 sighed Elise, 'it is foolish,
I know, yet how much I long for a really nice bed
made of brass.5
Goundran thought: cAnd her time is so near, it
has almost arrived . . . could I possibly afford it?5
Marie — who while doing her morning shopping
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