The other thousand I should expect
you to take in furniture."
"In furniture?"
"Yes, Admiral. We shall do you a beautiful houseful at that sum. It is
the custom of my clients to take half in furniture."
The Admiral sat in dire perplexity. He had come out to get money, and
to go back without any, to be powerless to help when his boy needed
every shilling to save him from disaster, that would be very bitter to
him. On the other hand, it was so much that he surrendered, and so
little that he received. Little, and yet something. Would it not be
better than going back empty-handed? He saw the yellow backed chequebook
upon the table. The moneylender opened it and dipped his pen into
the ink.
"Shall I fill it up?" said he.
"I think, Admiral," remarked Westmacott, "that we had better have a
little walk and some luncheon before we settle this matter."
"Oh, we may as well do it at once. It would be absurd to postpone it
now," Metaxa spoke with some heat, and his eyes glinted angrily from
between his narrow lids at the imperturbable Charles. The Admiral was
simple in money matters, but he had seen much of men and had learned to
read them. He saw that venomous glance, and saw too that intense
eagerness was peeping out from beneath the careless air which the agent
had assumed.
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