w beams overhead; and, lately, there
had been added to the stock a number of small clocks, stowed away out of
sight. Their hasty ceaseless little voices sounded in curious contrast
to the slowness of things in general at Dimbleby's: "Tick-tack,
tick-tack,--Time flies, time flies", they seemed to be saying over and
over again. Without effect, for at Dimbleby's time never flew; he
plodded along on dull and heavy feet, and if he had wings at all he
dragged them on the ground. You had only to look at the face of the
master of the shop to see that speed was impossible to him, and that he
was justly known as the slowest man in the parish both in speech and
action. This was hardly considered a failing, however, for it had its
advantages in shopping; if he was slow himself, he was quite willing
that others should be so too, and to stand in unmoved calm while Mrs
Jones fingered a material to test its quality, or Mrs Wilson made up
her mind between a spot and a sprig. It was therefore a splendid place
for a bit of talk, for he was so long in serving, and his customers were
so long in choosing, that there was an agreeable absence of pressure,
and time to drink a cup of gossip down to its last drop of interest.

"I don't understand myself what Mary White would be at," said Mrs
Greenways.

She stood waiting in the shop while Dimbleby thoughtfully weighed out
some sugar for her; a stout woman with a round good-natured face, framed
in a purple-velvet bonnet and nodding flowers; her long mantle matched
the bonnet in stylishness, and was richly trimmed with imitation fur,
but the large strong basket on her arm, already partly full of parcels,
was quite out of keeping with this splendid attire. The two women who
stood near, listening with eager respect to her remarks, were of very
different appearance; their poor thin shawls were put on without any
regard for fashion, and their straight cotton dresses were short enough
to show their clumsy boots, splashed with mud from the miry country
lanes. The edge of Mrs Greenways' gown was also draggled and dirty,
for she had not found it easy to hold it up and carry a large basket at
the same time.

"I thought," she went on, "as how Mary White was all for plain names,
and homely ways, and such-like."

"She _do say_ so," said the woman nearest to her, cautiously.

"Then, as I said to Greenways this morning, `It's not a consistent act
for your sister to name her child like that. Accordin