"
"And more than an acre of good ground to it."
"Just over an acre--ground that be run to waste for years, but could be
made good."
"And what would you feel like paying, Jack, if I was to see your point
about my boy?" asked Bewes.
"You do see that point, master," answered Cobley, "because you're clever
and straight, else you wouldn't stand where you do. When you was young,
you wouldn't have drove no woman into a corner for love, nor yet married
her on a sacrifice. And I dare swear, if Dicky saw it like that, he'd be a
lot too proud to carry on, but start again and start fair. As to what I'll
pay, if you're a seller, the price lies with you."
"I've thought to auction it," answered Mr. Bewes, which was true, because
he had done so.
Jack nodded.
"I'd like none the less to buy it at a fair figure and save you the
trouble. You'll be knowing, I expect, what would satisfy you in money
down."
Then they talked for another solid hour, farmer trying to get Jack to name
a price so as he might run it up, and Jacky determined not to do so.
In despair, at last, Nicholas said 'twas Cobley's for seven hundred
pounds, well knowing the price ran about three hundred too high. In fact,
Jack told him so; and then Bewes fetched his whisky bottle and they went
at it again; and then they closed, and a good bit to farmer's
astonishment, Cobley fetched a cheque-book out of his pocket and wrote a
cheque on the spot as though to the manner born.
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