Page:Barr--Stranleighs millions.djvu/20

8 offer are always best off. He began by offering my husband two thousand five hundred pounds for the shop, but as this was merely half the value of our property we refused to sell. He then established a cutlery business next door to ourselves and commenced his usual plan of undercutting."

"I see. War to the knife, as one might say."

"It was a one-sided war," went on the woman seriously. The situation was too tragic for her to appreciate or understand any attempted pleasantry with reference to it. "It was a one-sided war because Brassard could buy on so much better terms than we that he was able to undersell us and yet make a slight profit, whereas if my husband attempted to dispose of his stock at the same price, or to cut below him, he was parting with his goods at a loss."

"I see. This has been going on for some time, and at last your husband finds it impossible to meet his payments?"

"That is true."

"He is being pressed on the one hand by Brassard, and on the other by his creditors, the wholesale cutlery houses?"

"Yes."

"Would he accept five thousand for the business to-day?"

"Oh, Brassard offers only a thousand now."

"Oh, blow Brassard! Never mind him. I'll give your husband five thousand for his business