I have pleasure in pointing out to you that his lordship is
a frequent customer of ours, and has had many things from us at one
time or another. Sometimes he is in our debt; sometimes we are in his.
We keep a sort of running contract with him by which he pays us a
pound a week. He and several other customers deal on the same plan,
and in return for an income that we can count upon, they get the first
offer of anything in which they are supposed to be interested. As I
have told you, we call these sheets in the office our visiting lists,
but to make the visiting lists complete you need what we term our
encyclopaedia. We call it that because it is in so many volumes; a
volume for each year, running back I don't know how long. You will
notice little figures here from time to time above the amount stated
on this visiting list. These figures refer to the page of the
encyclopaedia for the current year, and on that page is noted the new
sale, and the amount of it, as it might be set down, say, in a
ledger.'
'That is a very entertaining explanation, Mr. Macpherson. I suppose
this encyclopaedia, as you call it, is in the shop at Tottenham Court
Road?'
'Oh, no, sir. Each volume of the encyclopaedia is self-locking.
Pages:
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247