As can easily be imagined, the men at the cellars were busy. Thousands of hampers began to accumulate. They had all to go out at the same time. Before the appointed time for delivery a notice was inserted in the newspapers that no more orders could be received after a certain date. The rush on these final days reminded one of the period of the South Sea bubble. Men and women with tears in their eyes and money in their hands, entreated as a favour to be registered. To keep faith with his clients, the "Man in the City" duly sent away his thousands of hampers on the day named, each hamper containing the number of bottles enumerated in the advertisement. You will doubtless turn round in surprise and ask where the profit came in, and whether the "Man in the City" was not a little touched in his "upper story?" Not at all. By the transaction he cleared close on £5,000! As will be seen, he had profited by his previous year's experience, and was enabled to afford many holidays on the Continent. Well, as my readers may be anxious to know the secret of his success in this "little business," I will tell them. It lay in the bottles being small in size, and containing about two glasses of wine each! The quality had been guaranteed, not the quantity! [Pg 14] [Pg 14] CHAPTER III. MT FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE AS AN AUCTIONEER. MT FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE AS AN AUCTIONEER. The force of Circumstances— An infallible System—Led to Ruin—Getting Out of One Scrape into Another—A Lucky Escape. In my lifetime I have played many parts, successfully and otherwise, but it was only on one occasion I officiated as an auctioneer. The circumstances connected with this position were too many for me, and I ascended the rostrum much against my inclination. The rostrum consisted of a small table, uncertain about the legs, with a worm-eaten desk upon it. It would have been a piece of good fortune if that shaky article of furniture had, like my friend's system of breaking the bank, broken down; but no surreptitious stamping would
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