I did not quite like his way of putting it. But that I had to stomach.
"What return will you require?"
He looked at me; then round the room; then back again to me. He was evidently making up his mind as to what it would be advisable for him to say.
"I should require you to make me an immediate, and, of course, temporary advance of £100--in gold."
"A hundred pounds? I am not exactly a poor man; on the other hand, I am emphatically not a rich one. To me a hundred pounds are a hundred pounds. Say ten."
"Say ten! I'll be hanged if I say ten! And you'll be hanged if you try to make me."
"Twenty."
"Nor twenty."
"I'm afraid I could not go beyond thirty."
"Then the discussion is at an end."