Prudence was very much surprised and delighted, being in one of her rare spasms of remembrance that she no longer was a girl. She expressed herself as not only willing but ready and anxious to help in raising half of the money required, if the explorer’s widow persisted in demanding a thousand pounds.
The sisters resolved, however, that Miss Augusta should endeavour to persuade her to accept £600, advancing to £800, and only paying the full sum if she remained obdurate. They decided, too, that despite her excellent references, it would be only judicious to postdate the cheque offered her, that they might have an opportunity of personally testing the efficacy of the water before the draft was presented.
“She is very emphatic as to its genuineness,” said Miss Semaphore; “but of course we do not know her, and she may not speak the truth. If she is an honest person—and certainly her references are all that can be desired—she will be quite willing to give us a chance of first finding out whether the water is really any good. A thousand pounds is a great deal of money, and we ought to run no risks.”
“She says she is willing to give you a proof before purchase.”
“I wonder what sort of proof?”
“Perhaps take some herself.”
“I shouldn’t like that. It would be a pity to waste any of it.”
“I tell you what,” said Miss Semaphore, after consideration, “I’ll take Toutou and make her give him a little, just for an experiment. You see he would require much less than a human being, unless we had quite a young girl at hand, and on her it might not show. The poor darling is nearly fifteen. A mere sip should suffice for him.”
“Perhaps it does not act on animals,” suggested Miss Prudence.
“Why should it not? I once read something about the Water of Youth before in a book, and my belief is that they said it acted not only on people, but on insects, and on flowers; then why not on a dog?”