Having confirmed Shade's identity, Mr. Walker warmly began chatting with him, only to be rudely interrupted by Miss Louisa:
"Stop it, Walker. Shade has no reason to help you. Besides, he only has a Knight Title—he has no ability to help you get an entire train car of contraband out. We won't get involved in your moonshine business. All right, all right, let's get back to the matter at hand. Can you lower the price or not?"
Miss Louisa had delayed here not only because of the police's arrival earlier, but also because when she came to collect the goods, she learned from Mr. Walker that the parchment made from the hides of Wild Triangular Antelope she had ordered was unexpectedly going up in price.
It was not that Mr. Walker wanted to fleece Miss Louisa, but that the sudden incident on Thursday night had greatly altered the cost of transporting these rare materials into Tobesk from elsewhere:
"A twenty-inch sheet of parchment originally sold for 12 pounds and 3 shillings. I've only raised it to 17 pounds now. That's not much."
"But the price increase came after Miss Louisa placed her order. This was an unforeseen event. What you're doing shows no respect for the spirit of a contract."
Shade spoke up in support, but the middle-aged man merely shrugged.
"I greatly respect the spirit of contracts, but I need money to spend too. No one's Gold Pounds fall from the sky. I can't let myself take a loss."
"Oh, Walker, don't think I don't know that your purchase price from out of town absolutely doesn't exceed 11 pounds and 7 shillings. Listen, I can pay you at most 13 pounds. Otherwise, this deal is off."
Miss Louisa said with a frown, making as if to turn and leave