Then: "Waal, I--I don't cal'late to want to be
unreasonable nor nothin', but I ain't real keen about takin' no mortgage
on that property; not myself, I ain't."
"Well, it is yourself I'm askin' to take it. So you won't, hey? All
right; that's all I wanted to know."
"Now--now--now, hold on! Hold on! I ain't sayin' I WON'T take it. I--I'd
like to be accommodatin', 'specially to a relation. But--"
"Never mind the relation business. I found out what you think
of relations afore you found out I was one. And I ain't askin'
accommodation. This is just plain business, seems to me. Will you let me
have two thousand dollars on a mortgage on this place?"
Mr. Cobb fidgeted. "I couldn't let you have that much," he said. "I
couldn't. I--I--" he wrenched the next sentence loose after what seemed
a violent effort, "I might let you have half of it--a thousand, say."
But Thankful refused to say a thousand. That was ridiculous, she
declared. By degrees, and a hundred at a time, Solomon raised his offer
to fifteen hundred. This being the sum Mrs. Barnes had considered in the
first place--and having asked for the two thousand merely because of her
judgment of human nature--she announced that she would think over the
offer. Then came the question of time. Here Mr. Cobb was firm. Three
years--two years--he would not consider. At last he announced that
he would take a one-year mortgage on the Barnes property for fifteen
hundred dollars; and that was all he would do.
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