“What can I do?”
“Why is the largest farm unlet?”
“Bad times; the chap who had it last threw it up in despair. He wanted to get it rent free for a year and half-rent for the next two so that he might carry out some wild-cat scheme of market gardening on the French principle.”
“And why didn’t Mr. Dunning let him have it on his own terms?”
“I suppose Dunning knows. He saw that the market garden notion was all tommy rot.”
“Did he go into the matter thoroughly—scientifically? Did he show you the basis of his calculations, and did you verify them?”
“Is it I? Great Gloriana! Where should I be by the side of Dunning?”
“You would be there—by the side of Dunning, and you would make Dunning look silly. Why should you accept any man’s judgment without figures? Make him give you figures.”
“He said it would be madness to give him the place rent free for a year.”
“But you have given it over to Nature, rent free, for three years. The figures that Mr. Dunning has given you are £2,000 with a minus sign in front.”