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As understanding and accommodating as Goodman Nasturtium has been, you want to get out of here - and he wants to put that little embarrassment behind him, so the two of you plunge into negotiations over a price. As you might have guessed, you are well and truly out of your class when it comes to haggling here, but you put up what you think to be a good effort, and ultimately get him to what you consider a good price on the coach - though as you end up paying a bit more than you would have liked on the team and tack, you are not able to consider this a resounding success. Oh well. You can at least consider this a learning experience, and as father always said - one way or another, you always end up paying for your education.
Once the price has been settled on, you stand up, turn around, and place your bundle in the chair - deliberately blocking it from Nasturtium's view. You then pull out five - five! - hundred-talents without showing him anything incriminating and then place them on his desk, one right after the other. As you do, you reflect how just three days ago, you were over the moon on account of thirty-five eighth talents, which was then the most money you had ever had. And now you barely feel anything handing over the equivalent of four thousand eighth-talents. Part of that was simply that you have a lot more back in the Belfry ... but you suspect that it might also have to do with how hard you worked for those thirty-five eighth-talents - five of which were father's - compared to just how easy it was to knock-down the Euthyphro.
> Lose five hundred-talents
He leans over his desk a bit, picks up one at random and looks it over for barely more than a second, then gathers them all up. Then he sits back down and pulls a key out of his pocket, and opens a drawer. You can hear the click of a lock, then he drops the coins in and withdraws four twelve-talents and a single two-talent, which he gives to you.
> Gain four twelve-talents and one two-talent
“Alright, that is it. I'll sketch up a bill of sale for your father, and then I will just need to find the Patent for the coach.”
Oh no.
“Find? It – it isn't here?”
“Oh, no madame – not like that. It is just upstairs, stored away somewhere. I'm pretty sure I know where.”
Pretty sure? It is all you can do to not take your head in your hands. But the goodman continues on -
“I try to keep papers out of the office, if possible – keeps things clean. Anyway, while you wait, why don't you take your dinner here, completely gratis. There will be seats at our famed wheel-table, and I promise you, there will be no more aquavitae!”
He laughs, and even as upset as you are about this unexpected delay, you cannot help but to chuckle along. But you fear you have already spent too much time here – and you still need to account for getting out of your 'worn piece' and into the domestic dress you were wearing.
