"Or abduct a woman?"
"An she pleased me, I'd not want money to tell her so."
"Then meseems," sighed Sir John with a deprecating shrug of the shoulders, "that I have come to the wrong man with mine offer."
"There was no offer," quoth Michael curtly.
"Ay! of a fortune," rejoined the other calmly.
"Not a serious one."
"As serious as mine own presence here."
"You have come here prepared to make me an offer?" reiterated the young man now, with contemptuous incredulity.
"The offer of a fortune," reiterated Ayloffe quietly.
"How much?"