I'm not surprised. Because it's sold. (CARVE: Sold? What in the name of----) (Soothing him.) Now--now! Do you remember you said Ilam Carve would have got £1000 for a thing just like that? (CARVE: So he would. It was absolutely characteristic.) Well, I said to myself, "He seems mighty sure of himself. Supposing it's me that's wrong?" So one day I quietly took that picture round to Bostock's, the second-hand furniture man, you know,--he was a friend of father's,--and I asked him what he'd give me for it. He wouldn't take it at any price. Not at any price. Then I asked him if he'd keep it in his shop and sell it for me on commission. Well, it stuck in Bostock's shop--in his window and out of his window--for twelve months and more, and then one day the landlord of the Reindeer saw it and he bought it for six shillings, because his public-house was in it. He was half-drunk. Mr. Bostock charged me eighteenpence commission, and I bought you two neckties with the four and six, and I said nothing because I didn't want your feelings to be hurt. And that reminds me, last week but one they took the landlord of the Reindeer off to the lunatic asylum.... So, you see!

Janet Cannot Monologue from The Great Adventure: A Play of Fancy in Four Acts

Rehearse Janet Cannot's monologue