"Good!" It was some minutes before Guion spoke again. "If I remember
rightly," he observed then, "I said I would sell my soul for half a
million dollars. I didn't say I wanted to borrow that amount."

"You may put it in any way you like," Davenant smiled. "I've come with
the offer of the money. I want you to have it. The terms on which you'd
take it don't matter to me."

"But they do to me. Don't you see? I'd borrow the money if I could. I
couldn't accept it in any other way. And I can't borrow it. I couldn't
pay the interest on it if I did. But I've exhausted my credit. I can't
borrow any more."

"You can borrow what I'm willing to lend, can't you?"

"No; because Tory Hill is mortgaged for all it will stand. I've nothing
else to offer as collateral--"

"I'm not asking for collateral. I'm ready to hand you over the money on
any terms you like or on no terms at all."

"Do you mean that you'd be willing to--to--to _give_ it to me?"

"I mean, sir," he explained, reddening a little, "that I want you to
have the money to _use_--now. We could talk about the conditions
afterward and call them what you please. If I understood you correctly
last night, you're in a tight place--a confoundedly tight place--"

"I am; but--don't be offended!--it seems to me you'd put me in a