“Aren’t you doing pretty well, considering?”
Henry nodded. “We’re doing great business––I mean, anybody else would think so. About a hundred and fifty a week net, for the first three weeks. And Anna’s salting away a hundred and ten of it. Every morning I draw a clean handkerchief, and a dime for dissipation, and she keeps a clutch on the rest.”
“Hm! A hundred and fifty. That’s good money, Henry.”
“Well, that’s the only kind we take. But you can see for yourself what this thing’s done to us. We ought to be averaging two twenty-five. And we’d have done it, too.”
The Judge appeared contrite. “I’m afraid you’re blaming me for bad advice, Henry.”
“No, sir. If I blamed anybody, I’d just 157 blame myself for taking it. But I don’t. You see, even if I fall down on the first prize, I’ve got a pretty good business under way. Eight thousand a year.”
“Would you keep on with it?”
“I’d think it over. It isn’t particularly joyous, but it sure does pay the rent. Oh, I suppose I’d try to sell it, if I could get a price for it, but Bob says I couldn’t expect a big one, because so much of the trade sort of belongs to us––and wouldn’t necessarily patronize the chap that bought me out. He tells me it was worth twenty when I took it, and thirty now, and if it weren’t for this law, it would be worth fifty. That’s all due to the improvements, and you advised me to put ’em in, and you engineered the mortgage. So I’m not huffy at you. Hardly.”
“Still, you want the big prize if you can get it.... Notice what Mix is giving out to the papers? He’ll hang himself yet, and if he does, you won’t be too far behind to catch up. That’s a prophecy. But by George, I can’t help feeling that Mix isn’t in that outfit for his health. It just don’t smell right, somehow.”