"Oh! a thousand per cent., if you like," cried Pam airily, but her eyes were dewy. "You may as well charge a big interest, for you know it would be a loan that would hardly have the faintest chance of ever being repaid."
"Oh! I don't know about that," said Lord Glengall, digging a hole in the ground with the toe of his boot.
"You are an optimist," laughed Pam, and her tone was tender.
"He will take it, you think?"
"He never will."
"I have neither chick nor child. Is my gold to lie rotting while the friend I love—wants for it?"
He substituted "wants" at the last moment for another word, and Pamela understood.
"I daresay it is foolish," she said, "but I am afraid we shall not be able to persuade him."
"If not, Pam, there is one other way."