"Yes," said Mr. Clutterbuck slowly, "but how do you mean? Is it buying or selling, or what?" "Neither," said Mr. Boyle, and then like a horse taking a hedge, he out with the whole business and said: "It's cover. I want to carry on." "Oh!" said Mr. Clutterbuck deliberately cold, "that's a question of how much and on what terms. Though for the matter of business from one gentleman to another, I don't see what a million eggs anyhow, if you understand me...." Here he began to think, and Mr. Boyle nodded intelligently to show that he completely followed the train of Mr. Clutterbuck's thought. Mr. Boyle filled his glass again with whiskey and waited, but Mr. Clutterbuck, who had ever appreciated the importance of sobriety in the relations of commerce, confined himself to occasional sips at his original allowance. When some intervals of silence had passed between them in this manner, and when Mr. Boyle had, now for the fourth time, replenished his glass, Mr. Clutterbuck, who could by this time survey the whole scheme in a lucid and organised fashion, repeated the number of eggs, to wit, one million, and after a considerable pause repeated also the fundamental proposition that it was a question of how much and upon what terms. Mr. Boyle, staring at the fire and apparently obtaining some help from it, made answer: "A thousand." A lesser man than Mr. Clutterbuck would perhaps have professed astonishment at so large a sum; he, however, like all men destined for commercial greatness at any period, however tardy, in their lives, said quietly: "More like five hundred." Mr. Clutterbuck had not yet divided one million by a thousand or by five hundred; still less had he estimated the probable selling value of an egg; but he was a little astonished to hear Mr. Boyle say with lifted eyebrows and a haughty expression: "Done with you!" "It is not done with me at all," said Mr. Clutterbuck hotly, as Mr. Boyle poured out a fifth glass of whiskey and water. "It's not done with me at all! Wait till you see my bit of paper!" Mr. Boyle assumed a look of weariness. "My dear sir," he said, "I was only speaking as one gentleman would to another." Mr. Clutterbuck nodded solemnly. "It's not a matter of five hundred or a thousand between men like you and me." Mr. Clutterbuck still nodded. "I'm not here to see your name in ink. I'm here to make a business proposition." Having said so much he rose to go. And Mr. Clutterbuck, appreciating that he had gained one of those commercial victories which are often the foundation of a great fortune, said: "I'll come and see 'em to-morrow. Current rate." "One above the Bank," said Mr. Boyle, and they parted friends.