It was a matter of
professional dignity with Mr. Barnabas Beers, auctioneer, not to be on
too friendly terms with bidders before an auction. He had found that it
had detracted from his importance and had lowered bids, if he allowed
would be purchasers to converse with him concerning the articles to be
sold. It was their business, he maintained in a heated argument one
evening in the hotel at Montrose, to find out by personal inspection the
condition and value of what was to be sold, and it was his business, he
said, to know as little about it as possible, for the less he knew the
less it would interfere with his descriptive powers when, hammer in
hand, he took his position on the bench. Having established a
professional standing, Barnabas Beers was not a man to step down, and
though the Professor, after a while, endeavored to extract some
information from the auctioneer as to whether there was likely to be
many bidders, he finally gave it up in despair, for he found Mr. Beers
as uncommunicative as a hitching post, as he afterwards told Abner
Stiles.
About half-past two Deacon Mason drove into the Square, and the
Professor went to meet him, and shook hands with him.
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