"If that's the case, when will you make up your mind; shall I call again to-morrow?"
"I hardly know"--scratching his head--"such a fine plot, let me see; aloud: It's worth a lot of money."
"Well, I'll call again this day week," said Frank, tiring of this useless talk and guessing what the farmer's intentions were. He rose and added: "I hope you will have made up your mind by then."
Quoth the farmer: "I should be very sorry for you to have had to come here for nothing, perhaps we may yet come to terms."
"Will you sell it? 'Yes' or 'No,'" said the young man re-seating himself.
"Land is very dear. This piece is situated quite close to town, it ought to fetch top price. There's two and a half vergées to that field. I have heard that some land has been sold for eight quarters a vergée."
"I won't give as much for this one; it's twice too much."
"Perhaps I might give you as much, but do state the price of the whole."
"It's too low, the field would only amount to two hundred and fifty pounds."
"Two hundred and fifty pounds for two and a half vergées, that is about an acre, is, I should think, a very good price."
"That would only make, besides the one hundred pounds cash, seven and a half pounds per annum. Such a fertile soil. Such a splendid stream. No well to dig. Hundreds of tomatoes weighing half-a-pound each. It's ridiculously low."
"It's time for me to part. Will you accept my price, Mr. Fallon, 'Yes' or 'No?'"
After much grumbling and protestations on the part of the farmer, with assertions that he would be ruined giving away his land like that, the transaction was agreed to.
Going home, Frank reviewed in his mind the state of his finance.
He possessed the house, garden, greenhouse and workshop, minus his step-mother's dowry, and plus five hundred pounds cash. "I cannot do much with that," he thought, "but I have enough to begin with."
And now where were his ambitious castles; where was the successful inventor, the possessor of hundreds of thousands--contemplating to build two span-roofed greenhouses in which he would have to work and perspire when the thermometer would often stand at from eighty to ninety degrees.
However, he was full of hope, his ambition had received a severe blow, but it still clung to him. He feared to aim too high now, and failures he dreaded. "I must begin at the bottom of the ladder," he said to himself, "and, with God's help, I shall succeed."