“SIR,

“I am obliged to decline your offer of the streaked daffodil bulb, the price you name being absurd.  To tell the plain truth, I would rather not do business with you in the matter; I prefer to deal with principals, else in these cases there is little guarantee of good faith.

“Yours faithfully,

“ALEXANDER CROSS.”

“P.  S.—­If you should fail to dispose of your bulb elsewhere and it would be a convenience to you, I will give you a five pound note for it, that is, if you can guarantee it genuine.  It is not, under the circumstances, worth more to me.

“A.  C.”

So the Captain read and then re-read; anger, mortification and disappointment preventing him from grasping the full meaning at first.  Five pounds, only five pounds!  No wonder Julia would not sell her bulb; no wonder she preferred to keep a present that would only fetch five pounds!  What was such a trifle?  The Captain glared at the letter as he asked himself the question proudly.  His pride was badly wounded.  Cross had not set him right in his mistaken idea of the daffodil’s value too politely; at least he thought not.  Why should he, this tradesman, say he preferred to deal with principals?  Did he imagine that a gentleman would attempt to sell him a spurious bulb?  The Captain’s honour was not of that sort and he felt outraged.  He felt outraged, too, almost insulted, at being told that the price was absurd.  The absurd thing was that he should be expected to know anything about trade or trade prices.  “The man can have no idea of my position,” he thought.

But there he was not quite correct; it was precisely because he had a suspicion of the position that Cross had written thus.  No one with any right to it would offer the true bulb for twenty pounds; either, so he argued, it was stolen or not genuine; which, he did not know, the odds were about even.  After making a few inquiries at Marbridge into Captain Polkington’s history he came to the conclusion that the chance in favour of the true bulb was worth five pounds to him.  Accordingly he offered it, indifferent as to the result, but rather anticipating its acceptance.

It was accepted.  The Captain was mortified and disappointed, but five pounds is five pounds.  It even seems a good deal more when your income is very small and the part of it which you handle yourself so much smaller as to amount to nothing worth mentioning.  It was September now, and already the mornings and evenings were cold, foretaste of the winter which was coming, which would hold the exposed land in its grip for months.  Five pounds would buy things which would make the winter more tolerable; small comforts and luxuries meant a great deal to real poverty in cold weather and feeble health.  Of course to Johnny and Julia too; they were all going to benefit.  Captain Polkington packed the bulb in a small box and posted it when he went to Halgrave to have his hair cut.