It is all very
well for your father to talk about land recovering itself, but at
present, at any rate, nobody can see the faintest chance of anything
of the sort. The probabilities are, on the contrary, that as the
American competition increases, land will gradually sink to something
like a prairie value."
"Then how can money be got if nobody will advance it?"
"I did not say that nobody will advance it; I said that nobody would
advance it as an investment--a friend might advance it."
"And where is such a friend to be found? He must be a very
disinterested friend who would advance thirty thousand pounds."
"Nobody in this world is quite disinterested, Miss de la Molle; or at
any rate very few are. What would you give to such a friend?"
"I would give anything and everything over which I have control in
this world, to save my father from seeing Honham sold over his head,"
she answered simply.
Edward Cossey laughed a little. "That is a large order," he said.
"Miss de la Molle, /I/ am disposed to try and find the money to take
up these mortgages. I have not got it, and I shall have to borrow it,
and what is more, I shall have to keep the fact that I have borrowed
it a secret from my father."
"It is very good of you," said Ida faintly, "I don't know what to
say.
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