So it comes
to this--you've a double hold on her, according to your story."
"Just so," agreed Pratt. "You're right, I have--a double hold."
Nesta looked at him silently for a while: Pratt looked at her.
"Very well," she said at last. "How much do you want--to be bought out?"
Pratt laughed.
"I thought that would be the end of it!" he remarked. "Yes--I thought
so!"
"Name your price!" said Nesta.
"Miss Mallathorpe!" answered Pratt, bending forward and speaking with a
new earnestness. "Just listen to me. It's no good. I'm not to be bought
out. Your mother tried that game with me before. She offered me first
five, then ten thousand pounds--cash down--for that document, when she
came to see me at my rooms. I dare say she'd have gone to twenty
thousand--and found the money there and then. But I said no then--and I
say no to you! I'm not to be purchased in that way. I've my own ideas,
my own plans, my own ambitions, my own--hopes. It's not any use at all
for you to dangle your money before me. But--I'll suggest something
else--that you can do."
Nesta made no answer. She continued to look steadily at the man who
evidently had her mother in his power, and Pratt, who was watching her
intently, went on speaking quietly but with some intensity of tone.
"You can do this," he said. "To start with--and it'll go a long
way--just try and think better of me.
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