“Not if they disseminated the Ganges!”
“A thousand Ramshorn Gas—four per cent guaranteed until the act?”
“Not if they promised twenty, and melted down the sun in their retort!”
“Blawweary Iron? Best spec. going.”
“No, I tell you once for all! If you don’t like my offer—and it is an uncommonly liberal one—say so, and I’ll expose you this afternoon upon ’Change.”
“Well, then—there’s a cheque. But may the”——
“Stop, sir! Any such profane expressions, and I shall insist upon the original bargain. So, then—now we’re quits. I wish you a very good-morning, Mr Sawley, and better luck next time. Pray remember me to your amiable family.”
The door had hardly closed upon the discomfited coffin-maker, and I was still in the preliminary steps of an extempore pas seul, intended as the outward demonstration of exceeding inward joy, when Bob M‘Corkindale entered. I told him the result of the morning’s conference.
“You have let him off too easily,” said the Political Economist. “Had I been his creditor, I certainly should have sacked the shares into the bargain. There is nothing like rigid dealing between man and man.”