“Indeed.” Wolfe closed his eyes, and after a moment partly opened them again. “So that was your decision.”
“It was.”
“And you think you’ll stick to it.”
“I do.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Why is it too bad?”
“Because it’s quite likely that if you had made such an offer, say this morning, when Mr. Stauffer called on you, it would have been accepted. Now, unfortunately, it can’t be considered. Do you want to hear a counterproposal?”
“What is it?”
“That you get a hundred thousand dollars and my clients get the rest.”
Miss Karn got smaller. That was what it looked like, she simply shrank, not back, but in all around. She was smaller. I watched her doing it for ten seconds. But apparently it was only springs coiling tighter inside of her, for all at once she laughed, and it was a pretty good laugh. Then she stopped laughing and said: