“I see,” said Garwood, “for your support you would expect about five hundred dollars.”
“I did not put it in that light,” said Pusey, spitting, and trying to assume a dignity.
“No, but I—”
“You can see, of course, Mr. Garwood—a man of your experience can readily see, that a paper like the News can hardly afford to give up its valuable space to that which is not strictly news matter without some hope of compensation.”
“I see,” said Garwood, “but to be frank with you, Pusey,” he turned and looked straight into the little man’s watery eyes, “I can’t afford it. This campaign, into which I sometimes wish I hadn’t gone, has proved expensive, and my practice has suffered, so that I need all the money at my command for more immediate and pressing expenses.”
“You do not consider this immediate and pressing then?” said Pusey.
“Well, not exactly,” Garwood replied. “Would you?”
Pusey was silent for a while. When he spoke he said:
“There are certain passages in your life, Mr. Garwood, which just now—”
Garwood glared at Pusey.