Vendale, on certain days, which we will appoint together. What
next?"
"Your objection to my income," proceeded Vendale, "has taken me
completely by surprise. I wish to be assured against any repetition of
that surprise. Your present views of my qualification for marriage
require me to have an income of three thousand a year. Can I be certain,
in the future, as your experience of England enlarges, that your estimate
will rise no higher?"
"In plain English," said Obenreizer, "you doubt my word?"
"Do you purpose to take _my_ word for it when I inform you that I have
doubled my income?" asked Vendale. "If my memory does not deceive me,
you stipulated, a minute since, for plain proofs?"
"Well played, Mr. Vendale! You combine the foreign quickness with the
English solidity. Accept my best congratulations. Accept, also, my
written guarantee."
He rose; seated himself at a writing-desk at a side-table, wrote a few
lines, and presented them to Vendale with a low bow. The engagement was
perfectly explicit, and was signed and dated with scrupulous care.
"Are you satisfied with your guarantee?"
"I am satisfied."
"Charmed to hear it, I am sure. We have had our little skirmish--we have
really been wonderfully clever on both sides. For the present our
affairs are settled. I bear no malice. You bear no malice. Come, Mr.
Vendale, a good English shake hands."
Vendale gave his hand, a little bewildered by Obenreizer's sudden
transitions from one humour to another.
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