Give him the faintest hint of any speculation, and the
figures flowed from him by the page. A lively
imagination, and a ready, though inaccurate memory,
supplied his data; he delivered himself with an
inimitable heat that made him seem the picture of
pugnacity; lavished contradiction; had a form of words,
with or without significance, for every form of
criticism; and the looker-on alternately smiled at his
simplicity and fervour, or was amazed by his unexpected
shrewdness. He was a kind of Pinkerton in play. I
have called Jim's the romance of business; this was its
Arabian tale.
"Have you any idea what this would cost?" he asked,
pausing at an item.
"Not I," said Carthew.
"Ten pounds ought to be ample," concluded the
projector.
"O, nonsense!" cried Carthew. "Fifty at the very
least."
"You told me yourself this moment you knew nothing
about it!" cried Tommy. "How can I make a calculation
if you blow hot and cold? You don't seem able to be
serious!"
But he consented to raise his estimate to twenty; and a
little after, the calculation coming out with a
deficit, cut it down again to five pounds ten, with the
remark, "I told you it was nonsense.
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