“In that case, I presume there’s no chance of our coming to terms. I should have been glad to take it by the year—for one year, certain—and at a good rent.”
“How much would you be inclined to give?” asked the lessee, bethinking him of a compromise.
“Well; I scarcely know. How much do you ask?”
“Furnished, or unfurnished?”
“I’d prefer having it furnished.”
The bank clerk commenced beating his brains. He thought of his pennies, and the objection his wife might have to parting with them. But he thought also, of how they had been daily dishonoured in that unhallowed precinct.
Even while reflecting, a paean of spasmodic revelry, heard on the other side of the paling, sounded suggestive in his ears?
It decided him to concede the furniture, and on terms less exacting than he might otherwise have asked for.
“For a year certain, you say?”
“I’ll take it for a year; and pay in advance, if you desire it.”