Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/107

Rh "'No use'?"—the expression had an oddity. "But what's it your idea to do with such things?"

"I mean," Mr. Bender explained, "that a picture of that rank is not what I'm after."

"The figure," said his noble host—speaking thus, under pressure, commercially—"is beyond what you see your way to?"

But Lord John had jumped at the truth. "The matter with Mr. Bender is that he sees his way much further."

"Further?" their companion echoed.

"The matter with Mr. Bender is that he wants to give millions."

Lord Theign sounded this abyss with a smile. "Well, there would be no difficulty about that, I think!"

"Ah," said his guest, "you know the basis, sir, on which I'm ready to pay."

"On the basis then of the Sir Joshua," Lord John inquired, "how far would you go?"

Mr. Bender indicated by a gesture that on a question reduced to a moiety by its conditional form he could give but semi-satisfaction. "Well, I'd go all the way."

"He wants, you see," Lord John elucidated, "an ideally expensive thing."