"Allen, Grant - Miss Cayley's Adventures 04 - The Adenture of the Amateur Commission Agent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Allen Grant)

'Old town?' he repeated, gazing with a blank
stare. 'You call this town old, do you?'

'Why, of course! Just look at the cathedral!
Eight hundred years old, at least!'

He ran his eye down the streets, dissatisfied.

'Well, ef this town is old,' he said at last,
with a snap of his fingers, 'it's precious little
for its age.' And he strode away towards the
railway station.

'What about the bicycle?' I asked; for it lay, a
silent victor, against the railing of the steps,
surrounded by a crowd of inquiring Teutons.

He glanced at it carelessly. 'Oh, the wheel?' he
said. 'You may keep it.' He said it so exactly in
the tone in which one tells a waiter he may keep
the change, that I resented the impertinence. 'No,
thank you,' I answered. 'I do not require it.'

He gazed at me, open-mouthed. 'What? Put my
foot in it again?' he interposed. 'Not high-toned
enough? Eh? Now, I do regret it. No offence
meant, miss, nor none need be taken. What I meant
to in-sinuate was this: you hev won the big race
for me. Folks will notice you and talk about you
at Frankfort. Ef you ride a Manitou, that'll make
'em talk the more. A mutual advantage. Benefits
you; benefits me. You get the wheel; I get the
advertizement.'

I saw that reciprocity was the lodestar of his
life. 'Very well, Mr. Hitchcock,' I said,
pocketing my pride, 'I'll accept the machine, and
I'll ride it.' Then a light dawned upon me. I saw
eventualities. 'Look here,' I went on, innocently
--recollect, I was a girl just fresh from Girton--
'I am thinking of going on very soon to
Switzerland. Now, why shouldn't I do this--try to
sell your machines, or, rather, take orders for
them, from anybody that admires them? A mutual
advantage. Benefits you; benefits me. You sell
your wheels; I get----'

He stared at me. 'The commission?'