"But it has not cost you forty pounds yet?" said the astonished Raphael.
"What are you saying? Look at the posters alone!" said Sugarman.
"But you don't look at it fairly," argued De Haan, whose Talmudical studies had sharpened wits already super-subtle. "Whatever it has cost us, it would have cost as much more if we had had to pay our editor, and it is very unfair of you to leave that out of account."
Raphael was overwhelmed. "It's taking away with the left hand what you gave us with the right," added De Haan, with infinite sadness. "I had thought better of you, Mr. Leon."
"But you got a good many twopences back," murmured Raphael.
"It's the future profits that we're losing," explained Schlesinger.
In the end Raphael agreed to give a hundred pounds, which made the members inwardly determine to pay up the residue on their shares at once. De Haan also extorted a condition that the Flag should continue to be the organ of the Kosher Co-operative Society, for at least six months, doubtless perceiving that should the paper live and thrive over that period, it would not then pay the proprietor to alter its principles. By which bargain the Society secured for itself a sum of money together with an organ, gratis, for six months and, to all seeming, in perpetuity, for at bottom they knew well that Raphael's heart was sound. They were all on the free list, too, and they knew he would not trouble to remove them.
Mr. Henry Goldsmith, returning, was rather annoyed at the price, but did not care to repudiate his agent.
"Be economical," he said. "I will get you a better office and find a proper publisher and canvasser. But cut it as close as you can."
Raphael's face beamed with joy. "Oh, depend upon me," he said.