The million pound banknote

Then she began to get a little worried, and wondered if we were making a mistake. So she started the salary on a higher figure for the first year than I would get. This was good sense, though it made me feel a little less confident than I had been feeling before; but it gave me a good business idea, and I brought it frankly out.

'Portia, dear, would you mind going with me that day, when I confront those old gentlemen?'

She shrank a little, but said 'N-o; if my being with you would help hearten you. But - would it be quite proper, do you think?'

'No, I don't know that it would - in fact, I'm afraid it wouldn't; but, you see, there's so much dependent upon it that-'

'Then I'll go anyway, proper or improper,' she said, with a beautiful and generous enthusiasm. 'Oh, I shall be so happy to think I'm helping!'

'Helping, dear? Why, you'll be doing it all. You're so beautiful and so lovely and so winning, that with you there I can pile our salary up till I break those good old fellows, and they'll never have the heart to struggle.'

Sho! You should have seen the rich blood mount in her face, and her happy eyes shine!

Vocabulary:

Frankly: Speaking clearly and truthfully
Confront: Meet and challenge
Shrank: Here it means 'made the body smaller, from worry or uncertainty'.
Hearten: Encourage
Proper: Here this means 'socially acceptable'
Dependent: Something needed for or by something else
Winning: Here this means 'persuasive'
Mount: Rise up