"There's humour in everything if you look for it. How about eight
hundred?"
"Eight hundred!" I laughed brokenly.
"Well, seven hundred?"
"Ha! ha!"
"Six hundred? Dash it, that's very little."
"Charles," I pleaded.
"I don't want to be hard," he said, "but in justice to the people who
come to stay with you I can't go any lower."
"Not if we did without wine?"
"Six hundred."
"Wine and cigars, Charles?"
"Six hundred."
"I'll give up auction."
Charles cleared his throat as though about to make a concession.
"Make it five," I pleaded. "Make it five and you shall be my best man."
"Very well," he said, "I make it five hundred."
"And now, Charles, good-bye."
"Why good-bye?"
"I love her," I said simply.
"Poor old thing," he said. "Let me know about the wedding. I must make a
point of being there."