“No, thanks!” said Jimmy firmly. “We have made up our minds not to borrow.”
Osborne gave him a dry smile.
“I suppose that means that you don’t see your way to taking any help from me?”
Jimmy felt embarrassed. As a matter of fact, he still suspected Osborne of complicity in some scheme to make an unlawful profit out of the wreck; and in that sense his offer might be regarded as a bribe.
“We feel that it would be better if we stood, so to speak, on our own feet,” he said.
“Perhaps you’re right. However, I don’t think you need object if I’m able to put any business in your way; but this is not what I meant to talk about. I cannot consent to an engagement just now, but after you have been twelve months in business you may come to me again, and we’ll see what progress you are making.”
“And in the meanwhile?” Jimmy asked anxiously.
“You are both free; I make no other stipulation. If Miss Dexter approves, my house is open to you.”
A few minutes afterward Jimmy found Ruth in the hall.
“Well?” she asked. “Was he very formidable?”