This took him aback. He jumped up, found the bonnet underneath
him sure enough, and tossed it on to the table. "Gew-gaws!" said he,
settling himself again and puffing. "Gew-gaws and frippery!
That man'll do good in this country; he's badly wanted."
Sal patted the straw of her bonnet into something like shape and
smoothed out the ribbons. "If it'll make you feel like a
breadwinner," said she, "there's a loaf in the bread-pan. The cold
meat and pickles are under lock and key, and we'll talk o' them
later." She fitted the bonnet on and began to tie the strings.
"You don't tell me, Sarah, that you mean to go gadding out at this
time of the evening?" cries he, a bit chapfallen, for he knew she
carried the keys in an under-pocket beneath her skirt.
"And you don't suppose," answers she, "that I can spare the time to
watch you play-actin' in my best chair? No, no, my little man!
Sit there and amuse yourself: what _you_ do don't make a ha'porth of
odds. But there's others to be considered, and I'm going to put an
end to this nonsense afore it spreads."
The time of the year, as I've told you, was near about midsummer,
when a man can see to read print out-of-doors at nine o'clock.
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