'Let me try - oh, I beg you, do please! Just test me for thirty or forty years, and if-
'Oh, well, all right. You are not asking for much, so take her away.'
Are the two of us happy? There are not enough words in the entire dictionary to describe it. A day or two after that, London got the whole story of my month's adventure with that bank-note, and how the adventure ended. Did London talk, and have a good time? Yes.
Portia's papa gave back that friendly and very useful banknote to the Bank of England. Then the Bank cancelled it and presented it to him. Portia's papa gave that banknote to us at our wedding. Ever since then it has always hung in its frame in the most important place in our home.
That banknote gave me my Portia. Without it I could not have remained in London. I would never have visited the ambassador, and never would have met her. And so I always say, 'Yes, that banknote's a million-pounder, as you see. But it was only ever used once to buy something, and then what it was used to buy was worth ten times as much.'
