“So what do you think led him to do it?” said Jason. “Fill this place with more books than any person could ever read, despite being nearly blind?”

“My uncle used to say that if everybody assumed someone else had a copy, eventually every book in the world would see its last copy thrown out and no one would know,” Marianne said. “I think he was trying to give them all a safe home, in his own way, to keep them from being destroyed.”

“And where does that leave me, the estate salesman, seeing the collection broken up?” Jason said. “It’s not too late to send us away, if you’re having second thoughts.”

“I suppose sending them to new homes is what he would have wanted.”

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