"Bet your boots! Nothing would please me better. Now, I suppose you'd want it dark, wouldn't you?"
"Black. That's what it used to be," Walton replied. "But how long will it take?"
The barber cocked his head sideways, squinted an eye critically, then walked solemnly around Walton several times, and finally slipped his fingers through the beard and hair.
"It's a fine growth," he announced. "I can finish it in an hour."
"How much will it cost?" Walton paused in front of the chair which Dunning was adjusting for him.
"Well, I usually charge fifteen dollars for such a job, but I'm willing to do it for five, if you promise not to let any one else know I cut the price to you."
"I won't give over three," asserted Walton firmly, moving to the door.
Dunning, fearing flight and the attendant loss of the thirty dollars, followed Walton humbly.
"Now, see here, Walton, why can't we split the difference? If I come down a dollar, you can sure raise one. I'll do a first-class job for four dollars. My regular price is fifteen. Why, man! It will make you look twenty years younger!"
Impervious to flattery, Walton kept edging nearer the door.