though you're so ready to say it for me - but he'll see some day as his aunt's in the right not to risk the money she's saved for him till it's proved as it won't be lost.'
`Ay, that's a pleasant sort o' risk, that is,' said Mr Glegg, indiscreetly winking at Tom, who couldn't avoid smiling. But Bob stemmed the injured lady's outburst.
`Ay, mum,' he said, admiringly, `you know what's what, you do. An' it's nothing but fair. You see how the first bit of a job answers, an' then you'll come down handsome. Lors, it's a fine thing to hev good kin. I got my bit of a nest-egg as the master calls it, all by my own sharpness - ten suvreigns it was - wi' dousing the fire at Torry's mill, an' it's growed an' growed by a bit an' a bit, till I'n got a matter o' thirty pound to lay out, besides makin' my mother comfor'ble. I should get more, on'y I'm such a soft wi' the women - I can't help lettin' 'em hev such good bargains. There's this bundle, now' (thumping it lustily), `any other chap 'ud make a pretty penny out on it. But me!... lors, I shall sell 'em for pretty near what I paid for 'em.'
`Have you got a bit of good net, now?' said Mrs Glegg, in a patronising tone, moving from the tea-table, and folding her napkin.
`Eh, mum, not what you'd think it worth your while to look at. I'd scorn to show it you. It 'ud be an insult to you.'
`But let me see,' said Mrs Glegg, still patronising. `If they're damaged goods, they're like enough to be a bit the better quality.'
`No, mum. I know my place,' said Bob, lifting up his pack and shouldering it. `I'm not going t' expose the lowness o' my trade to a lady like you. Packs is come down i' the world: it 'ud cut you to th' heart to see the difference. I'm at your service, sir, when you've a mind to go an' see Salt.'
`All in good time,' said Mr Glegg, really unwilling to cut short the dialogue. `Are you wanted at the wharf, Tom?'
`No, sir; I left Stowe in my place.'
`Come, put down you pack, and let me see,' said Mrs Glegg, drawing a chair to the window, and seating herself with much dignity.
`Don't you ask it, mum,' said Bob, entreatingly.
`Make no more words,' said Mrs Glegg, severely, `but do as I tell you.'
`Eh, mum, I'm loth - that I am,' said Bob, slowly depositing his pack on the step, and beginning to untie it with unwilling fingers. `But what you order shall be done' (much fumbling in pauses between the sentences). `It's not as you'll buy a single thing on me... I'd be sorry for you to do it... for think o' them poor women up i' the villages there, as niver stir a hundred yards from home... it 'ud be a pity for anybody to buy up their bargains. Lors, it's as good as a junketing to 'em when they see me wi' my pack... an' I shall niver pick up such bargains for 'em again. Least ways, I've no time now, for I'm off to Laceham. See here, now,' Bob went on, becoming rapid again, and holding up a scarlet woollen kerchief with an embroidered wreath in the corner - `Here's a thing to make a lass's mouth water, an' on'y two shillin' - an' why? Why, 'cause there's a bit of a moth-hole i' this plain end. Lors, I think the moths an' the mildew was sent by Providence o' purpose to cheapen the goods a bit for the good lookin' women as han't got much money. If it hadn't been for the moths, now, every hankicher on 'em 'ud ha' gone to the rich handsome ladies like you, mum, at five shillin' apiece - not a farthin' less - but what does the moth do? Why, it nibbles off three shillin' o' the price i' no time, an' then a packman like me can carry't to the poor lasses as live under the dark thack, to make a bit of a blaze for 'em. Lors, it's as good as a fire, to look at such a hankicher!'