Just and mild, always; with a peculiar gift that made men talk their best thoughts to him, knowing they would be understood; if any core of eternal flint lay under the simple, truthful manner of the man, nobody saw it.
He laid the bill of sale on the table; it was an altogether practical matter on which he sat in judgment, but he was going to do nothing rashly.

A plain business document: he took Dr.Knowles's share in the factory; the payments made with short intervals; John Herne was to be his endorser: it needed only the names to make it valid.

Plain enough; no hint there of the tacit understanding that the purchase-money was a wedding dowry; even between Herne and himself it never was openly put into words.

If he did not marry Miss Herne, the mill was her father's; that of course must be spoken of, arranged to-morrow.

If he took it, then?
if he married her?
Holmes had been poor, was miserably poor yet, with the position and habits of a man, of refinement.