"
"Very well, then, suppose I offer to lend you the money."
"You, Waymark?"
"No less a person."
And he went on to explain how it was that he was able to make the
offer, adding that any sum up to a hundred pounds was at his
friend's disposal.
"Ye mean it, Waymark!" cried O'Gree, leaping round the room in
ecstasy. "Bedad, you are a man and a brother, and no mistake! Ye're
the first that ever offered to lend me a penny; ye're the first that
ever had faith in me! You shall come with me to see Sally on
Saturday, and tell her this yourself, and I shouldn't be surprised
if she gives you a kiss!"
O'Gree exhausted himself in capering and vociferation, then sat down
and began to exercise his luxuriant imagination in picturing
unheard-of prosperity.
"We'll take a shop in a new neighbourhood, where we shall have the
monopoly. The people 'll get to know Sally; she'll be like a magnet
behind the counter. I shall go to the wholesale houses, and impress
them with a sense of my financial stability; I flatter myself I
shall look the prosperous shopkeeper, eh? Who knows what we may come
to? Why, in a few years we may transfer our business to Oxford
Street or Piccadilly, and call ourselves Italian warehousemen; and
bedad, we'll turn out in the end another Crosse and Blackwell, see
if we don't!"
At the utmost limit of the time allowed him by the rules of The
Academy, the future man of business took his leave, in spirits
extravagant even for him.
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