swered; "that's all right. Perhaps you would not
mind getting the tea, though; if you would do that I should be glad."

He did mind, but he set about it, and it was perhaps well for him that
he did, as otherwise he might have paid a suspicious number of fidgety
attentions to Julia. As it was, doing the menial work which he always
considered beneath his dignity, while Johnny sat still and rested,
restored him to his usual manner.

But the Captain, though he was safely past the initial difficulty, did
not find the working out of his scheme altogether easy. He had the
bulb, it is true, and he was safe from detection for there was still
under the wire cover a smooth yellow-brown narcissus root very like
the first one; but he had got to get rid of it. It was not very easy
to get a letter to the post here without remark from Mr. Gillat. That,
in the circumstances, would be undesirable for it was likely to arouse
Julia's suspicions, and if they were roused she might think it her
duty to interfere--even though, of course, she did wish the bulb sold.
Her father recognised that and, determining not to give her the
opportunity, got his letter written betimes and waited for a chance to
give it to the postman unobserved. In writing he had been faced by one
very great difficulty, he had not the least idea how much to ask.
Cross had said "name a reasonable price," and he must name one, or
else it would appear that he were writing on his own behalf not
Julia's; but he did not know what was reasonable and he had no chance
of finding out. A new orchid, he had vaguely heard, was sometimes
worth a hundred pounds; but it was impossible any one should pay so
much for a daffodil, an ordinary garden flower. Julia, whatever her
motive, would not have refused to sell it if it would have fetched so
much; he could not conceive of a Polkington, especially a poor one,
turning her back on a hundred pounds. For hours he thought about this
and at last decided to ask twenty pounds. It seemed more to him now
than it would have done a year ago, by reason of the small sums he had
handled lately; but it was a good deal less than his golden dreams had
painted the bulb to be worth in the time when it seemed unattainable,
and he was paying debts and providing for Julia out of the proceeds of
the imaginary sale. Still, he finally decided to ask it and wrote to
that effect, and after some waiting for the opportunity got the letter
posted.

After that there fo