`Well, well,' said Mr Glegg, `we'll come in now.'

`You needn't stay here,' said the lady to Bob, in a loud voice, adapted to the moral not the physical distance between them. `We don't want anything. I don't deal wi' packmen. Mind you shut the gate after you.'

`Stop a bit; not so fast,' said Mr Glegg: `I haven't done with this young man yet. Come in, Tom, come in,' he added, stepping in at the French window.

`Mr Glegg,' said Mrs G. in a fatal tone. `If you're going to let that man and his dog in on my carpet before my very face, be so good as to let me know. A wife's got a right to ask that, I hope.'

`Don't you be uneasy, mum,' said Bob, touching his cap. He saw at once that Mrs Glegg was a bit of game worth running down, and longed to be at the sport. `We'll stay out upo' the gravel here, Mumps and me will. Mumps knows his company - he does. I might hish at him by th' hour together before he'd fly at a real gentlewoman like you. It's wonderful how he knows which is the good-looking ladies - and's partic'lar fond of 'em when they've good shapes. Lors,' added Bob, laying down his pack on the gravel, `it's a thousand pities such a lady as you shouldn't deal with a packman, i'stead o' goin' into these newfangled shops where there's half a dozen fine gents wi' their chins propped up wi' a stiff stock, a-looking like bottles wi' ornamental stoppers, an' all got to get their dinner out of a bit o' calico - it stan's to reason you mun pay three times the price you pay a packman, as is the nat'ral way o' gettin' goods - an' pays no rent, an' isn't forced to throttle himself till the lies are squeezed out on him, whether he will or no. But lors, mum, you know what it is better nor I do - you can see through them shopmen, I'll be bound.'

`Yes, I reckon I can, and through the packmen too,' observed Mrs Glegg, intending to imply that Bob's flattery had produced no effect on her; while her husband standing behind her with his hands in his pockets and legs apart, winked and smiled with conjugal delight at the probability of his wife's being circumvented.

`Ay, to be sure, mum,' said Bob. `Why, you must ha' dealt wi' no end o' packmen when you war a young lass - before the master here had the luck to set eyes on you. I know where you lived, I do - seen th' house many a time - close upon Squire Darleigh's - a stone house wi' steps... '

`Ah, that it had,' said Mrs Glegg, pouring out the tea. `You know something o' my family then... are you akin to that packman with a squint in his eye, as used to bring th' Irish linen?'

`Look you there now!' said Bob evasively. `Didn't I know as you'd remember the best bargains y'ever made in your life was made wi' packmen? Why, you see, even a squintin' packman's better nor a shopman as can see straight. Lors, if I'd had the luck to call at the stone house wi' my pack as lies here,' - stooping and thumping the bundle emphatically with his fist - `an' th' handsome young lasses all stannin' out on the stone steps, it 'ud ha' been summat like openin' a pack - that would. It's on'y the poor houses now as a packman calls on, if it isn't for the sake o' the sarvant-maids. They're paltry times, there are. Why, mum, look at the printed cottons now, an' what they was when you wore 'em - why, you wouldn't put such a thing on now, I can see. It must be first-rate quality - the manifactur as you'd buy - summat as 'ud wear as well as your own faitures.'

`Yes, better quality nor any you're like to carry: you've got nothing first-rate but brazenness, I'll be bound,' said Mrs Glegg, with a triumphant sense of her insurmountable sagacity. `Mr Glegg, are you going ever to sit down to your tea? Tom, there's a cup for you.'

`You speak true there, mum,' said Bob. `My pack isn't for ladies like you. The time's gone by for that. Bargains picked up dirt cheap - a bit o' damage here an' there, as can be cut out or else niver seen i' the wearin'; but not fit to offer to rich folks as can pay for the look o' things as nobody sees. I'm not the man as 'ud offer t' open my pack to you, mum: no, no; I'm imperent chap, as you say - these times makes folks imperent - but I'm not to put the mark o' that.'