“Yes; I find there is a chance of realizing seventy-five or a hundred dollars from it. It is not much, to be sure—”
“It will be a good deal to me. You are certainly very kind, Squire Turner. You must deduct any expenses which you have incurred about it.”
“I couldn’t think of it, Mrs. Raymond,” said the squire, in a cordial manner. “It is a pleasure to me to serve my friends.”
“How much I have misjudged Squire Turner in times past!” thought Mrs. Raymond, and she thanked him again.
Two months later Squire Turner received a letter from the Milwaukie lawyer, in which he stated that the parties had increased their offer to seven thousand dollars.
“Shall I accept it for you?” he asked.
Squire Turner replied that the offer was not satisfactory, and that the negotiation must proceed. He was in no particular hurry, he said.
A month later the offer was increased to eight thousand dollars.
“Tell them,” he wrote, “that we will take a month to consider their offer. I am not in haste, as I before wrote, and am resolved not to accept any sum short of ten thousand dollars. Still it won’t do any harm to appear to consider their offer.”