“Humph! That’s equivalent to investing money at eighteen per cent. You ought to get more than that.”
“A little more or less is nothing compared with paying so much on my debt.”
“What will your library bring?”
“Perhaps four thousand, if I can find some one who wants so technical a collection.”
“And you can get along without it?”
“I must,” I declared, though wincing a little.
“Rather goes against the grain, eh?” he rejoined kindly.
I tried to laugh, and said, “My books have been such good comrades that I haven’t quite accustomed myself yet to thinking of them as merchandise. I feel a little as the bankrupt planter must have felt when he saw his slave children offered for sale.”
“And what do you plan to do with yourself?”
“I haven’t been able to make up my mind.”