"That's just it. I do want time. I know that if I accept your offer, you and I are going to come into collision. You have one way of looking at things, I have another. Not once, but many times, you and I are going to look at the same thing at the same time and in different ways. When these times come, one of us will have to give way." Winston waved aside Elijah's attempt to interrupt. "When these times come, I may be the one to give up, but if I am, it will be because your way appeals to my reason as being better than my own." Winston's meaning was clear to Elijah. The "word" that he reverenced, the voice to which he listened and which he followed, meant not the weight of a feather to the man before him. Elijah moistened his nervous lips with his tongue. He had been guided to seek Winston--Winston he must have. Impatiently he put Winston's words aside. "All this is not to the point." "What is?" Winston asked curtly. "This. Will you accept my offer?" "An equal partnership with yourself?" "Yes." "I suppose you realize that if I accept, the management is no longer yours alone, but yours and mine?" "Yes." "And that it is my right to put forth every effort to compel you to my way of thinking?" Winston deliberately used the word compel, instead of persuade. "Yes, yes!" "Then I will think it over, Elijah, and will give you my final answer the next time you are in Ysleta." "Suppose I come tomorrow?" Elijah's voice was assured. "My answer will be ready." CHAPTER TWO