"I am delighted, of course," said the gentleman from the British
Museum, coughing and drawing up his chair also.
The clock on the mantelpiece ticked for just the moments required
for Basil to clear his throat and collect his words, and then he
said:
"My proposal is this. I do not know that in the strict use of words
you could altogether call it a compromise, still it has something
of that character. My proposal is that the Government (acting, as I
presume, through your Museum) should pay Professor Chadd L800 a
year until he stops dancing."
"Eight hundred a year!" said Mr Bingham, and for the first time
lifted his mild blue eyes to those of his interlocutor--and he
raised them with a mild blue stare. "I think I have not quite
understood you. Did I understand you to say that Professor Chadd
ought to be employed, in his present state, in the Asiatic
manuscript department at eight hundred a year?"
Grant shook his head resolutely.
"No," he said firmly. "No. Chadd is a friend of mine, and I would
say anything for him I could. But I do not say, I cannot say, that
he ought to take on the Asiatic manuscripts. I do not go so far as
that. I merely say that until he stops dancing you ought to pay
him L800 Surely you have some general fund for the endowment of
research.
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