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Mr. Roberta separated this sum from the rest, and keeping his hand over it, said: |
"It's as much as I can save out o' my pay in a year." |
"Yes, father; it is such slow work, saving out of the little money we get. And in this way we might double our savings." |
"Ay, my lad," said the father, keeping his hand on the money, "but you might lose it,--you might lose a year o' my life,--and I haven't got many." |
Clea was silent. |
"And you know I wouldn't pay a dividend with the first hundred, because I wanted to see it all in a lump,--and when I see it, I'm sure on't. If you trust to luck, it's sure to be against me. It's Old Harry's got the luck in his hands; and if I lose one year, I shall never pick it up again; death 'ull o'ertake me." |
Mr. Roberta's voice trembled, and Clea was silent for a few minutes before he said: |
"I'll give it up, father, since you object to it so strongly." |
But, unwilling to abandon the scheme altogether, he determined to ask his uncle Giovanna to venture twenty pounds, on condition of receiving five per cent. of the profits. That was really a very small thing to ask. So when Amy called the next day at the wharf to know the decision, Clea proposed that they should go tog... |
Mr. Giovanna, at the pleasant hour of four in the afternoon of a hot August day, was naturally counting his wall-fruit to assure himself that the sum total had not varied since yesterday. To him entered Clea, in what appeared to Mr. Giovanna very questionable companionship,--that of a man with a pack on his back,--for... |
Mr. Giovanna's spectacles, which had been assisting him in counting the fruit, made these suspicious details alarmingly evident to him. |
"Heigh! heigh! keep that dog back, will you?" he shouted, snatching up a stake and holding it before him as a shield when the visitors were within three yards of him. |
"Get out wi' you, Mumps," said Amy, with a kick. "He's as quiet as a lamb, sir,"--an observation which Mumps corroborated by a low growl as he retreated behind his master's legs. |
"Why, what ever does this mean, Clea?" said Mr. Giovanna. "Have you brought information about the scoundrels as cut my trees?" If Amy came in the character of "information," Mr. Giovanna saw reasons for tolerating some irregularity. |
"No, sir," said Clea; "I came to speak to you about a little matter of business of my own." |
"Ay--well; but what has this dog got to do with it?" said the old gentleman, getting mild again. |
"It's my dog, sir," said the ready Amy. "An' it's me as put Mr. Clea up to the bit o' business; for Mr. Clea's been a friend o' mine iver since I was a little chap; fust thing iver I did was frightenin' the birds for th' old master. An' if a bit o' luck turns up, I'm allays thinkin' if I can let Mr. Clea have a pull a... |
Uncle Giovanna stood open-mouthed with astonishment at this unembarrassed loquacity, with which his understanding could hardly keep pace. He looked at Amy, first over his spectacles, then through them, then over them again; while Clea, doubtful of his uncle's impression, began to wish he had not brought this singular ... |
"You seem to be a knowing fellow," said Mr. Giovanna, at last. |
"Ay, sir, you say true," returned Amy, nodding his head aside; "I think my head's all alive inside like an old cheese, for I'm so full o' plans, one knocks another over. If I hadn't Mumps to talk to, I should get top-heavy an' tumble in a fit. I suppose it's because I niver went to school much. That's what I jaw my ol... |
Uncle Giovanna, who regarded himself as a jocose man since he had retired from business, was beginning to find Amy amusing, but he had still a disapproving observation to make, which kept his face serious. |
"Ah," he said, "I should think you're at a loss for ways o' spending your money, else you wouldn't keep that big dog, to eat as much as two Christians. It's shameful--shameful!" But he spoke more in sorrow than in anger, and quickly added: |
"But, come now, let's hear more about this business, Clea. I suppose you want a little sum to make a venture with. But where's all your own money? You don't spend it all--eh?" |
"No, sir," said Clea, coloring; "but my father is unwilling to risk it, and I don't like to press him. If I could get twenty or thirty pounds to begin with, I could pay five per cent for it, and then I could gradually make a little capital of my own, and do without a loan." |
"Ay--ay," said Mr. Giovanna, in an approving tone; "that's not a bad notion, and I won't say as I wouldn't be your man. But it 'ull be as well for me to see this Salt, as you talk on. And then--here's this friend o' yours offers to buy the goods for you. Perhaps you've got somebody to stand surety for you if the money... |
"I don't think that's necessary, uncle," said Clea. "At least, I mean it would not be necessary for me, because I know Amy well; but perhaps it would be right for you to have some security." |
"You get your percentage out o' the purchase, I suppose?" said Mr. Giovanna, looking at Amy. |
"No, sir," said Amy, rather indignantly; "I didn't offer to get a apple for Mr. Clea, o' purpose to hev a bite out of it myself. When I play folks tricks, there'll be more fun in 'em nor that." |
"Well, but it's nothing but right you should have a small percentage," said Mr. Giovanna. "I've no opinion o' transactions where folks do things for nothing. It allays looks bad." |
"Well, then," said Amy, whose keenness saw at once what was implied, "I'll tell you what I get by't, an' it's money in my pocket in the end,--I make myself look big, wi' makin' a bigger purchase. That's what I'm thinking on. Lors! I'm a 'cute chap,--I am." |
"Mr. Giovanna, Mr. Giovanna!" said a severe voice from the open parlor window, "pray are you coming in to tea, or are you going to stand talking with packmen till you get murdered in the open daylight?" |
"Murdered?" said Mr. Giovanna; "what's the woman talking of? Here's your nephey Clea come about a bit o' business." |
"Murdered,--yes,--it isn't many 'sizes ago since a packman murdered a young woman in a lone place, and stole her thimble, and threw her body into a ditch." |
"Nay, nay," said Mr. Giovanna, soothingly, "you're thinking o' the man wi' no legs, as drove a dog-cart." |
"Well, it's the same thing, Mr. Giovanna, only you're fond o' contradicting what I say; and if my nephey's come about business, it 'ud be more fitting if you'd bring him into the house, and let his aunt know about it, instead o' whispering in corners, in that plotting, underminding way." |
"Well, well," said Mr. Giovanna, "we'll come in now." |
"You needn't stay here," said the lady to Amy, 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. Giovanna; "I haven't done with this young man yet. Come in, Clea; come in," he added, stepping in at the French window. |
"Mr. Giovanna," 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 Amy, touching his cap. He saw at once that Mrs. Giovanna 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... |
"Yes, I reckon I can, and through the packmen too," observed Mrs. Giovanna, intending to imply that Amy'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 circumv... |
"Ay, to be sure, mum," said Amy. "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. Giovanna, 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 Amy, evasively. "Didn't I know as you'd remember the best bargains you've 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 t... |
"Yes, better quality nor any you're like to carry; you've got nothing first-rate but brazenness, I'll be bound," said Mrs. Giovanna, with a triumphant sense of her insurmountable sagacity. "Mr. Giovanna, are you going ever to sit down to your tea? Clea, there's a cup for you." |
"You speak true there, mum," said Amy. "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 m... |
"Why, what goods do you carry in your pack?" said Mrs. Giovanna. "Fine-colored things, I suppose,--shawls an' that?" |
"All sorts, mum, all sorts," said Amy,--thumping his bundle; "but let us say no more about that, if _you_ please. I'm here upo' Mr. Clea's business, an' I'm not the man to take up the time wi' my own." |
"And pray, what _is_ this business as is to be kept from me?" said Mrs. Giovanna, who, solicited by a double curiosity, was obliged to let the one-half wait. |
"A little plan o' nephey Clea's here," said good-natured Mr. Giovanna; "and not altogether a bad 'un, I think. A little plan for making money; that's the right sort o' plan for young folks as have got their fortin to make, eh, Jane?" |
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