'And now,' he said, 'that I am here, perhaps it would be wiser to get to business, and leave my personal failings for discussion behind my back when I am gone.'
'Yes,' answered the other briskly, 'let us get to business. You must leave in two hours. Now about terms. Are they to be the same as for the Franco-Prussian?'
'No!' answered Trist.
'Ah!'
'Your terms were generous for the Franco-Prussian War,' replied the correspondent, 'but now they would be miserly.'
The editor raised his august eyebrows and waited in quizzical silence. He appeared to be amused.
'I was a young man then, and a beginner. You did me a great kindness, and I am not going to repay it by such a mean ruse as working below the market price. I am worth more now, and I expect more. It is only natural that my health will give in some day, or my reputation may die, in either of which cases I shall have little to live upon. During this war and the disturbances of some description which will undoubtedly follow, I mean to make money.'
The great man laughed aloud.
'Capital!' he exclaimed—'capital! What a head for business! My dear Trist, you are worth four times as much money as we gave you in '70, and I am authorized to offer you that sum.'
'I think that is too much.'