"Then why are you so anxious to get possession of it?"
"Who? I, sir? Bless my soul, I'm not anxious. I merely thought that as his lordship was particularly partial to landscapes, he might be tempted, perhaps, to give more—"
"Well," said Dick, eager to bring the matter to a conclusion, "as I have no very pressing desire to retain the picture, though it is the very thing for my library in Mount-street, you shall have it; but on certain conditions."
"Name them, my dear sir, name them," said the virtuoso, his eyes sparkling with animation.
"I have bought the painting," resumed Dick, "for three hundred guineas; now, you shall have it for six hundred. You see I put the matter quite on a footing of business, without the slightest reference to his lordship."
"Six hundred guineas! Bless my soul, impossible!"
"As you please," replied our hero with exquisite nonchalance; "I am indifferent about the matter."
"Say four hundred, sir."
"Not a farthing less. The pictures in this house, as the advertisement which brought me up here at this unseasonable hour, before I had even time to complete my toilette, justly observes, have been long celebrated, and——"
"I'll give you five hundred," replied Smithson, cutting short Dick's remarks.