The firm undertook to prove it was a magnificent offer. Meadows offered no resistance, he thought so too; but he must not take it, everybody told him it was worth more. At last, when his hand was on the door, they offered him twelve thousand five hundred.
He begged to consider it.
No! they were peremptory. If he was off, they were off.
He looked this way and that way with a frightened air.
“What shall I do, sir?” said he, helplessly, to Clinton, and nudged him secretly.
“Take it, and think yourself very lucky,” said that gentleman, exchanging a glance with the firm.
“Well, then, if you say so, I will. You shall have it, gentlemen, five hundred acres in two lots—400 and 100.”
Clinton, acting on his secret instructions, now sought a private interview with the firm.
“I am to have a commission, gentlemen?”
“Yes! fifty pounds; but, really, we can hardly afford it.”