He looked at them with a steady confidence, knowing his ground thoroughly, and continued:
“We are all of us men of substance, and men of affairs, and we can all, if we like, increase the sum.”
Here Mr Burden nodded. For the first time in the conversation he clearly understood one whole phrase.
Lord Benthorpe was almost agitated.
“We could always add,” he said, “if there were any necessity;” and, as he said it, the little nervous trick with his hands began again.
Mr Harbury shut his lips very tight. When he opened them it was to say:
“You can’t do business that way,” and then he shut them again.
Mr Burden thought he would speak, and did so, with a mixture of sense and self-respect:
“I shall be happy to abide by any decision that you come to, gentlemen. I was certainly prepared, now or ultimately, for a much larger sum.... But I will, of course, be bound by Lord Benthorpe’s prudence; and by the sense of you all, gentlemen; ... by the sense of you all.”
Mr Burden delighted in these phrases; they gave him a solid pleasure; and he went on: