The dealer communicated with the receptionist by sign language through a glass partition. All callers had to wait. The dealer would signal with one finger held up, or two, or three, how many minutes the caller should wait. The receptionist had to memorise the phone numbers of the people likely to call - the biggest collectors, the biggest artists, the biggest museum directors, the biggest journalists, the other biggest dealers. The biggest dealer would test her. Give me ten Ss, she would say.

The calls had to be colour - coded in a special book. Maybe a certain colour for the biggest collector, another colour for the biggest artist, another for the biggest journalist. Other colours for the nature of the call - a big hello, a big wish to purchase, a big wish to have dinner.

She had to always be ready with a memory of the various numbers of whoever was calling - their mobile, their country home number, their Swiss or Mauritius or whatever home, their office. So she could ask the caller, Should the dealer phone you back on (repeating the number by heart, even if it was a long mobile number or a complicated foreign number), or on (repeating off by heart two or three other numbers)? So the caller could feel good about himself, or herself.

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