Fifty thousand pounds to her
seemed so trivial; to me it was something that might be obtained after
the struggle of a lifetime.'
'Well, I wouldn't let that discourage me too much if I were you; besides,
you see--Oh! here we are. We'll talk about this some other time.'
Having paid the cabman, the two young men went upstairs into Wentworth's
room, where they closed the door, and John drew up a seat by the side of
his friend.
'Now, then,' said Wentworth, 'what have you done about the mine?'
'I have done absolutely nothing. I have been waiting for this conference
with you.'
'Well, my boy, time is the great factor in anything of this sort.'
'Yes, I suppose it is.'
'You see, our option is running along; every day we lose is so much taken
off our chances of success. Have you anything to propose?'
'I'll tell you what I thought of doing. You know young Longworth spoke to
me a good deal about the mine at one time. His cousin introduced me to
him, and she seemed to think he might take some interest in forming the
company. I was to have a talk with you, because Longworth gave it as his
opinion that the amount should be put at two hundred thousand pounds
rather than at fifty thousand pounds.'
Wentworth gave a long whistle.
'Yes, it seems a very large amount; but he claims that if it would pay
ten per cent. on that sum--if we could show that there was a reasonable
chance of its paying so much--we could put it at two hundred thousand.
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