Capital! It would be the making of you. You could go
right away--to London, say, and start out on whatever you liked. Be
sensible--sell me that paper--and be done with the whole thing."
"No!" replied Pratt.
Mrs. Mallathorpe looked at him for a full moment. She was a shrewd judge
of character, and she felt that Pratt was one of those men who are hard
to stir from a position once adopted. But she had to make her
effort--and she made it in what she thought the most effective way.
"I'll give you five thousand pounds--cash--for it," she said. "Meet me
with it tomorrow--anywhere you like in the town--any time you like--and
I'll hand you the money--in notes."
"No!" said Pratt. "No!"
Once more she looked at him. And Pratt looked back--and smiled.
"When I say no, I mean no," he went on. "And I never meant 'No' more
firmly than I do now."
"I don't believe you," she answered, affecting a doubt which she
certainly did not feel. "You're only holding out for more money."
"If I were holding out for more money, Mrs. Mallathorpe," replied Pratt,
"if I meant to sell you that will for cash payment, I should have stated
my terms to you last night. I should have said precisely how much I
wanted--and I shouldn't have budged from the amount. Mrs.
Mallathorpe!--it's no good. I've got my own schemes, and my own
ideas--and I'm going to carry 'em out.
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