‘In three months, I think?’ said Dare, looking to Havill.
Havill assented.
‘Five thousand pounds commission,’ murmured the creditor. ‘Paid down, I suppose?’
Havill nodded.
‘And the works will not linger for lack of money to carry them out, I imagine,’ said Dare. ‘Two hundred thousand will probably be spent before the work is finished.’
‘There is not much doubt of it,’ said Havill.
‘You said nothing to me about this?’ whispered the creditor to Havill, taking him aside, with a look of regret.
‘You would not listen!’
‘It alters the case greatly.’ The creditor retired with Havill to the door, and after a subdued colloquy in the passage he went away, Havill returning to the office.
‘What the devil do you mean by hoaxing him like this, when the job is no more mine than Inigo Jones’s?’