Class 11 English 2024 Edition www.tntextbooks.in · Section 112

Although the previous lots had run into four figures they had all been modestly started at fifty guineas or a hundred guineas, with a gradual crescendo to which I had often been safely contributing. But no sooner was the new picture displayed than the dealer made his sensational bid, “Four thousand guineas,” he said. e) How had the author managed the auction without getting involved in the deal? There was a rustle of excitement, and at the end of it I heard my own voice saying, “And fifty!” A terrible silence followed, during which the auctioneer looked inquiringly first at the opener and then at the company generally. To my surprise and horror the red- faced dealer gave no sign of life. I realized now, as I ought to have done at first, that he had shot his bolt. f) What came as a shock to the author? “Four thousand and fifty guineas offered”, said the auctioneer, again searching the room. My heart stopped; my blood congealed. There was no sound but a curious smothered noise from my friend. Four thousand and fifty guineas. Any advance on four thousand and fifty guineas? — and the hammer fell. g) What did the falling of the hammer indicate? That was a nice pickle to be in! Here was I, with sixty-three pounds in the world and not five hundred pounds’ worth of securities, the purchaser of a picture which I didn’t want, for four thousand and fifty guineas, the top price of the day. Turning for some kindly support to my friend I found that he had left me; but not, as I feared at the moment, from baseness, but, as I afterwards discovered, in order to find a remote place in which to lean against the hall and laugh. h) What made the friend laugh heartily? Stunned and dazed as I was, I pulled myself together sufficiently to hand my card, nonchalantly (I hope) to the clerk who came for the millionaire collector’s name, and then I set to pondering on the problem what to do next. Picture after picture was put up and sold, but I saw none of them. I was running over the names of uncles and other persons from whom it might be possible to borrow, but wasn’t; wondering if the moneylenders who talk so glibly about ‘note of hand only’ really mean it; speculating on the possibility of confessing my poverty to one of Christie’s staff and having the picture put up again. That was the best way — and yet how could I do it after all the other bids I had made? The staff looked so prosperous and unsympathetic, and no one would believe it was a mistake. A genuine mistake of such a kind would have been rectified at once. i) What kind of excuses did the narrator think he could make? -A-Prose-Tight - - :