Lisle gazed at the picture with pitiable agitation; he was in mortal terror lest he should scare his customer away by asking too much.
"Really," he faltered, "I—I don't know its value, I have never——," he laughed. "What should you think it was worth?"
The duke ought, if he had answered truthfully, to have replied, "Rather less than nothing," but he feigned to meditate severely, then said:
"If fifty pounds——."
Poor Lisle gasped.
"You—you think—I was going to say twenty."
"We will say fifty," said the duke, as if he were making an excellent bargain. "You have not finished it yet."
"No, no," assented Lisle, eagerly. "I will do so carefully, most carefully. It—it shall be the most finished picture I have ever painted."
"I am sure you will do your best," said the duke. "I will accept your kind invitation to see your other pictures, and now I must be getting back. Good-morning."
"Yes, yes! Good-morning! What did you say your name was?"