There is nothing so deceptive as a half-truth. The half that is true has a certain suggestive power that lends to the other half a plausibility and a credibility that it does not possess in its own right. This interesting psychological fact was realized at least subconsciously by Mr. Didbury Toke. For Mr. Toke was a collector of antique and other works of art a connoisseur and a dealer. He really was. It was not a pose or a pretence. He was a bona fide collector and a connoisseur who had that genuine
love of fine and beautiful works that is the indispensable condition of real connoisseurship. But Mr. Toke was also a fence. And that was where the illusory element came in. Any person who not being a known collector and a recognized dealer should have been seen as he frequently was in the company of definitely shady characters would inevitably have attracted the attention of the guardians of the law. But everyone knows that the really enthusiastic collector must needs seek his quarry where it is most likely to be found; and there is no need to watch him for no crook or fence would be so foolish as to sell doubtful merchandise to a collector who is going to expose it forthwith in his show-cases or a dealer who is going to offer it in the open market. So Mr. Didbury Toke went about his lawful occasions unmolested and unsuspected and under the cover of them did a little unlawful business if it happened to come his way.