"'We can't get away from a signed agreement,' he said sulkily.
"Yes we can, if we draw out another, cancelling the first,' I answered.
"'No more writing for me,' he said.
"'Well, then, let us have an oral understanding,' I suggested.
"'I'll entertain any proposal in reason,' he replied.
"But, of course, I was unprepared with suggestions. The interview had been sprung upon me, and I had not bestowed a moment's thought upon preparations.
"'You're in a fix, I know,' he remarked, 'a mere temporal quandary, only involving certain ladies and so forth, but still troublesome so far as it goes. I might do this; I might quash all these earthly suits by the simple expedient of restoring you to your real age. As it is, you will upset a good many of them, because old Bangley-Brown, for instance, is on the look-out for a man of seventy-five; and the publican's daughter, Marie Rogers, expects a man of five-and-forty or fifty. But, by returning to the ripe old age of one hundred-and-eight, you reduce the whole series of proceedings to a farce, and leave the different police courts and places without a stain on your character. In any case, you can only live one year more, but the difference is this: that if you go on as you're going, you go out altogether; whereas, if you consent to my alternative, you'll die in your bed, and have a future.'
"As you may imagine, Martha, I grew very excited.
"'A future--where?' I enquired, in my dream.
"Exactly. Where? There's the rub," grandfather answered. "I asked Nick the same question, and he said: