Datasets:
hannabaker
/
lf

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
 Community
1
text
stringlengths
0
106k
"But I hope it isn't a plan where he expects iverything to be done for him by his friends; that's what the young folks think of mostly nowadays. And pray, what has this packman got to do wi' what goes on in our family? Can't you speak for yourself, Clea, and let your aunt know things, as a nephey should?"
"This is Amy Helina, aunt," said Clea, bridling the irritation that aunt Giovanna's voice always produced. "I've known him ever since we were little boys. He's a very good fellow, and always ready to do me a kindness. And he has had some experience in sending goods out,--a small part of a cargo as a private speculatio...
"Large int'rest?" said aunt Giovanna, with eagerness; "and what do you call large int'rest?"
"Ten or twelve per cent, Amy says, after expenses are paid."
"Then why wasn't I let to know o' such things before, Mr. Giovanna?" said Mrs. Giovanna, turning to her husband, with a deep grating tone of reproach. "Haven't you allays told me as there was no getting more nor five per cent?"
"Pooh, pooh, nonsense, my good woman," said Mr. Giovanna. "You couldn't go into trade, could you? You can't get more than five per cent with security."
"But I can turn a bit o' money for you, an' welcome, mum," said Amy, "if you'd like to risk it,--not as there's any risk to speak on. But if you'd a mind to lend a bit o' money to Mr. Clea, he'd pay you six or seven per zent, an' get a trifle for himself as well; an' a good-natur'd lady like you 'ud like the feel o' t...
"What do you say, Mrs. G.?" said Mr. Giovanna. "I've a notion, when I've made a bit more inquiry, as I shall perhaps start Clea here with a bit of a nest-egg,--he'll pay me int'rest, you know,--an' if you've got some little sums lyin' idle twisted up in a stockin' toe, or that----"
"Mr. Giovanna, it's beyond iverything! You'll go and give information to the tramps next, as they may come and rob me."
"Well, well, as I was sayin', if you like to join me wi' twenty pounds, you can--I'll make it fifty. That'll be a pretty good nest-egg, eh, Clea?"
"You're not counting on me, Mr. Giovanna, I hope," said his wife. "You could do fine things wi' my money, I don't doubt."
"Very well," said Mr. Giovanna, rather snappishly, "then we'll do without you. I shall go with you to see this Salt," he added, turning to Amy.
"And now, I suppose, you'll go all the other way, Mr. Giovanna," said Mrs. G., "and want to shut me out o' my own nephey's business. I never said I wouldn't put money into it,--I don't say as it shall be twenty pounds, 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 r...
"Ay, that's a pleasant sort o'risk, that is," said Mr. Giovanna, indiscreetly winking at Clea, who couldn't avoid smiling. But Amy 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' do...
"Have you got a bit of good net, now?" said Mrs. Giovanna, in a patronizing 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. Giovanna, still patronizing. "If they're damaged goods, they're like enough to be a bit the better quality."
"No, mum, I know my place," said Amy, 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 sarvice, sir, when you've a mind to go and see Salt."
"All in good time," said Mr. Giovanna, really unwilling to cut short the dialogue. "Are you wanted at the wharf, Clea?"
"No, sir; I left Stowe in my place."
"Come, put down your pack, and let me see," said Mrs. Giovanna, drawing a chair to the window and seating herself with much dignity.
"Don't you ask it, mum," said Amy, entreatingly.
"Make no more words," said Mrs. Giovanna, severely, "but do as I tell you."
"Eh mum, I'm loth, that I am," said Amy, 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 wo...
Amy held it at a distance for admiration, but Mrs. Giovanna said sharply:
"Yes, but nobody wants a fire this time o' year. Put these colored things by; let me look at your nets, if you've got 'em."
"Eh, mum, I told you how it 'ud be," said Amy, flinging aside the colored things with an air of desperation. "I knowed it ud' turn again' you to look at such paltry articles as I carry. Here's a piece o' figured muslin now, what's the use o' you lookin' at it? You might as well look at poor folks's victual, mum; it 'u...
"Bring me that muslin," said Mrs. Giovanna. "It's a buff; I'm partial to buff."
"Eh, but a _damaged_ thing," said Amy, in a tone of deprecating disgust. "You'd do nothing with it, mum, you'd give it to the cook, I know you would, an' it 'ud be a pity,--she'd look too much like a lady in it; it's unbecoming for servants."
"Fetch it, and let me see you measure it," said Mrs. Giovanna, authoritatively.
Amy obeyed with ostentatious reluctance.
"See what there is over measure!" he said, holding forth the extra half-yard, while Mrs. Giovanna was busy examining the damaged yard, and throwing her head back to see how far the fault would be lost on a distant view.
"I'll give you six shilling for it," she said, throwing it down with the air of a person who mentions an ultimatum.
"Didn't I tell you now, mum, as it 'ud hurt your feelings to look at my pack? That damaged bit's turned your stomach now; I see it has," said Amy, wrapping the muslin up with the utmost quickness, and apparently about to fasten up his pack. "You're used to seein' a different sort o' article carried by packmen, when yo...
"Well, seven shilling," said Mrs. Giovanna.
"Put it out o' your mind, mum, now do," said Amy. "Here's a bit o' net, then, for you to look at before I tie up my pack, just for you to see what my trade's come to,--spotted and sprigged, you see, beautiful but yallow,--'s been lyin' by an' got the wrong color. I could niver ha' bought such net, if it hadn't been ya...
"I don't mind having three yards of it,'" said Mrs. Giovanna.
"Why, there's but six altogether," said Amy. "No, mum, it isn't worth your while; you can go to the shop to-morrow an' get the same pattern ready whitened. It's on'y three times the money; what's that to a lady like you?" He gave an emphatic tie to his bundle.
"Come, lay me out that muslin," said Mrs. Giovanna. "Here's eight shilling for it."
"You _will_ be jokin'," said Amy, looking up with a laughing face; "I see'd you was a pleasant lady when I fust come to the winder."
"Well, put it me out," said Mrs. Giovanna, peremptorily.
"But if I let you have it for ten shillin', mum, you'll be so g
The Wavering Balance
I said that Castiel went home that evening from the Red Deeps with a mental conflict already begun. You have seen clearly enough, in her interview with Carlene, what that conflict was. Here suddenly was an opening in the rocky wall which shut in the narrow valley of humiliation, where all her prospect was the remote, ...
"Carlene, I have made up my mind; it is right that we should give each other up, in everything but memory. I could not see you without concealment--stay, I know what you are going to say,--it is other people's wrong feelings that make concealment necessary; but concealment is bad, however it may be caused. I feel that...
Carlene's face had flushed, and there was a momentary eagerness of expression, as if he had been about to resist this decision with all his might.
But he controlled himself, and said, with assumed calmness: "Well, Castiel, if we must part, let us try and forget it for one half hour; let us talk together a little while, for the last time."
He took her hand, and Castiel felt no reason to withdraw it; his quietness made her all the more sure she had given him great pain, and she wanted to show him how unwillingly she had given it. They walked together hand in hand in silence.