For I'll bet you my head to a China orange, I hear no more
of this matter; and don't even lose Trebooze's custom."
"Upon my word, I envy your sanguine temperament!"
"Mr. Headley, I shall quietly make my call at Trebooze to-morrow, as
if nothing had happened. What will you bet me that I am not received
as usual?"
"I never bet," said Frank.
"Then you do well. It is a foolish and a dirty trick; playing with
edge tools, and cutting one's own fingers. Nevertheless, I speak
truth, as you will see."
"You are a most extraordinary man. All this is so contrary to your
usual caution."
"When you are driven against the ropes, 'hit out' is the old rule of
Fistiana and common sense. It is an extreme bore: all the more reason
for showing such an ugly front, as to give people no chance of its
happening again. Nothing so dangerous as half-measures, Headley.
'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,' your creed says. Mine
only translates it into practice."
"I have no liking for half-measures myself."
"Did you ever," said Tom, "hear the story of the two Sandhurst
broom-squires?"
"Broomsquires?"
"So we call, in Berkshire, squatters on the moor who live by tying
heath into brooms. Two of them met in Reading market once, and fell
out:--
"'How ever do you manage to sell your brooms for three halfpence? I
steals the heth, and I steals the binds, and I steals the handles: and
yet I can't afoord to sell 'em under twopence.
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