'I don't exactly see.'

'I'll make it quite clear.' The attorney's tall forehead had a little
pink flush over it at this moment, and he was looking down a little and
poking the base of Sir William de Braundon's monument with the point of
his umbrella. 'I wish, Captain Lake, to be perfectly frank, and, as I
said, above-board. You'll want the money, and you must make up your mind
to sell Five Oaks.'

Captain Lake shifted his foot, as if he had found it on a sudden on a hot
flag.

'Sell Five Oaks--that's fourteen hundred a year,' said he.

'Hardly so much, but nearly, perhaps.'

'Forty-three thousand pounds were offered for it. Old Chudworth offered
that about ten years ago.'

'Of course, Captain Lake, if you are looking for a fancy price from me I
must abandon the idea. I was merely supposing a dealing between friends,
and in that sense I ventured to name the extreme limit to which I could
go. Little more than five per cent, for my money, if I insure--and
possibly to defend an action before I've been six months in possession. I
think my offer will strike you as a _great_ one, considering the posture
of affairs. Indeed, I apprehend, my friends will hardly think me
justified in offering so much.'

The sexton was walking back and forward near the door, making the best
clatter he decently could, and wondering the Captain and Lawyer Larkin