"If you will permit me," said Aaron, and he proceeded to pencil down a calculation. "It is not an undesirable house, Mr. Whimpole?"
"No, no; I don't say it is."
"It is compact and convenient?"
"Fairly so, fairly so!"
"I will accept," said Aaron, having finished his calculation, "five hundred pounds."
"You cannot be in earnest!" gasped Mr. Whimpole his breath fairly taken away.
"I am quite in earnest. Are you aware what it is you would buy of me?"
"Of course I am aware; the lease of this house."
"Not that alone. You would buy my hopes for the next twenty-seven years; for I declare to you there is not to my knowledge in all England a spot in which I so desire to pass my days as in this peaceful town; and there is not in all Gosport a house in which I believe I shall be so happy as in this. You see, you propose to purchase of me something more than a parchment lease."
"But the--the things you mention are of no value to me."