Out of that we could pay a
quarter's rent, and stock the shop. Sally's been behind the counter
a good bit of late, and she's getting an insight into that kind of
thing. Wonderful girl, Sally! Put her in Downing Street for a week,
and she'd be competent to supplant the Premier!"
'You have decided for a chandler's?"
"Yes; we neither of us know much about tobacco, and tobacco perhaps
isn't quits the thing for a man of education. But to be a chandler
is something worthy of any man's ambition. You supply at once the
solids and the luxuries of life; you range from boiled ham and
pickles to mixed biscuits and preserves. You are the focus of a
whole street. The father comes to you for his mid-day bread and
cheese, the mother for her half-ounce of tea, the child for its
farthing's-worth of sweets. For years I've been leading a useless
life; once let me get into my shop, and I become a column of the
social system. Faith, it's as good as done!"
"From whom shall you borrow the cash?"
"Sally's going to think about that point. I suppose we shall go to a
loan office, and make some kind of arrangement. I'm rather vague on
these things, but Sally will find it out."
"I understand," said Waymark, checking his amusement, that you are
perfectly serious in this plan?"
"As serious as I was in the moment of my birth! There's no other
chance.
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