"Oh—you think not," Meggison replied with a look of disappointment. "Well—perhaps you know best. What are your plans? I'm a man for hurry always."
"My plans depend to a great extent upon you," said Gilbert. "I do not imagine for a moment that you are possessed of any sum of money?"
"I am a most unfortunate man, sir, to whom much money should have come had Fate treated me better. But I am not worth sixpence."
"Briefly, my plan is this," went on Gilbert, after a pause. "I would like to give Bessie a sight of the better world that lies outside Arcadia Street; not the world of London, and London streets and sights and sounds; but that bigger world for which she longs—that freer world of trees and flowers and blue skies. In other words, I would like to give her a holiday. Now, can you by any possibility suggest some reason why you should suddenly come into a little money, Mr. Meggison?"
"I can suggest a hundred reasons—but they would be equally romantic and absurd," said Meggison, scratching the top of the smoking-cap thoughtfully. "A rich relative of whom she has never heard—no—that wouldn't do, because she knows all my relatives. Work that suddenly brings in a lot of money? . . . No—she wouldn't believe in work, so far as I'm concerned; that would require too great a stretch of the imagination, I'm afraid. A lucky speculation? . . . No—one requires capital for that."
"I'm afraid you'll have to fall back on a relative—a distant relative—very much removed. Understand, it would only be a small legacy."
"May I ask what you exactly mean by the term 'small'?" asked Daniel Meggison.
"I would suggest a sum of about fifty pounds," said Gilbert quietly.
Mr. Daniel Meggison opened his mouth very wide, and then shut it with a snap; opened it again, as though intending to speak; and blurted out a faint echo of the sum that had been named.
"Fifty—fifty pounds!" Mr. Meggison came nearer, and touched Gilbert, as though to discover whether or not he was actually real. Then suddenly and harshly he burst out laughing. "Fifty pounds, indeed! Don't attempt to fool me, please. Where will you get such a sum—and you in Arcadia Street?"