.

"We'll give you five thousand for your bargain--twenty-five in all."

"I suggested to Major Duplay that being ahead of you was so rare an
achievement that it ought to be properly recognized."

Duplay whispered to Iver. Sloyd whispered to Harry. Iver listened
attentively, Harry with evident impatience. "Let it go for thirty, don't
make an enemy of him," had been Sloyd's secret counsel.

"My dear Harry, the simple fact is that the business won't stand more
than a certain amount. If we put money into Blinkhampton, it's because
we want it to come out again. Now the crop will be limited." He paused.
"I'll make you an absolutely final offer--thirty."

"My price is fifty," said Harry immovably.

"Out of the question."

"All right." Harry lit a cigarette with an air of having finished the
business.

"It simply cannot be done on the figures," Iver declared with genuine
vexation. "We've worked it out, Harry, and it can't be done. If I showed
our calculations to Mr Sloyd, who is, I'm sure, willing to be
reasonable----"

"Yes, Mr Iver, I am. I am, I hope, always desirous of--er--meeting
gentlemen half-way; and nothing could give me greater pleasure than to
do business with you, Mr Iver."

"Unfortunately you seem to have--a partner," Iver observed. "No, I've
told you the most we can give." He leant back in his chair. This time it
was he who had finished business.

"And I've told you the least we can take."

"It's hopeless. Fifty! Oh, we should be out of pocket. It's really
unreasonable." He was looking at Sloyd. "It's treating me as an
enemy,--and I shall have no alternative but to accept the situation.
Blinkhampton is not essential to me; and your hotel and so on won't
flourish much if I leave my tumble-down cottages and pigsties just
behind them. Will you put these papers together, Duplay?"

The Major obeyed leisurely. Sloyd was licking his lips and looking
acutely unhappy.

"You're absolutely resolved, Harry?"

"Absolutely, Mr Iver."

"Well, I give it up. It's bad for me, and it's worse for you. In all my
experience I never was so treated. You won't even discuss! If you'd said
thirty-five, well, I'd have listened. If you'd even said forty, I'd
have----"

"I say, done for forty!" said Harry quietly. "I'd a sort of idea all the
time that that might be your limit. I expect the thing really wouldn't
stand fifty, you know. Oh, that's just my notion."

Iver's face was a study. He was surprised, he was annoyed