"Nonsense—anybody will take such things! I am taking rye. We will date the papers day before yesterday—for the sake of the old man."
Tidemand shook his head.
"I am not going to pull you under, too."
Ole looked at him; the veins in his temples were swelling. "You are a damn fool!" he exclaimed angrily.
"Do you for a moment think you can so easily pull me under?" And Ole swore, with blazing eyes, right into Tidemand's face: "By God, I'll show you how easily you can pull me under!"
But Tidemand was immovable; not even Ole's anger made him yield. He understood Ole; his means were perhaps not so insignificant, but it was no use making out that he could do everything. Ole boasted only because he wanted to help him, that was all. But from to-morrow on the bottom would simply drop out of the market; it wasn't right to sell rye even to one's enemies at yesterday's prices.
"But what are you going to do? Are you going into a receiver's hands?" asked Ole in a temper.
"No," answered Tidemand, "I think I can skin through without that. The ice in England and Australia is quite a help now; not much, but crowns are money to me now. I shall have to retrench, to sell what I can in order to raise cash. I thought that perhaps you would care to buy—you might use it when you are going to marry, you know, and we don't need it at all; we are never there any more—"
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, I thought that you might want to buy my country estate now—You are going to be married soon, so—" "Your country house? Are you going to sell it?"