t have been
better satisfied. It was in the absolute acquiescence of Emily and
Shadrach in the results she herself had contrived that her discontent
found nourishment.

Shadrach was not endowed with the narrow shrewdness necessary for
developing a retail business in the face of many competitors. Did a
customer inquire if the grocer could really recommend the wondrous
substitute for eggs which a persevering bagman had forced into his stock,
he would answer that 'when you did not put eggs into a pudding it was
difficult to taste them there'; and when he was asked if his 'real Mocha
coffee' was real Mocha, he would say grimly, 'as understood in small
shops.'

One summer day, when the big brick house opposite was reflecting the
oppressive sun's heat into the shop, and nobody was present but husband
and wife, Joanna looked across at Emily's door, where a wealthy visitor's
carriage had drawn up. Traces of patronage had been visible in Emily's
manner of late.

'Shadrach, the truth is, you are not a business-man,' his wife sadly
murmured. 'You were not brought up to shopkeeping, and it is impossible
for a man to make a fortune at an occupation he has jumped into, as you
did into this.'

Jolliffe agreed with her, in this as in everything else.

'Not that I care a rope's end about making a fortune,' he said
cheerfully. 'I am happy enough, and we can rub on somehow.'

She looked again at the great house through the screen of bottled
pickles.

'Rub on--yes,' she said bitterly. 'But see how well off Emmy Lester is,
who used to be so poor! Her boys will go to College, no doubt; and think
of yours--obliged to go to the Parish School!'

Shadrach's thoughts had flown to Emily.

'Nobody,' he said good-humouredly, 'ever did Emily a better turn than you
did, Joanna, when you warned her off me and put an end to that little
simpering nonsense between us, so as to leave it in her power to say
"Aye" to Lester when he came along.' This almost maddened her.

'Don't speak of bygones!' she implored, in stern sadness. 'But think,
for the boys' and my sake, if not for your own, what are we to do to get
richer?'

'Well,' he said, becoming serious, 'to tell the truth, I have always felt
myself unfit for this business, though I've never liked to say so. I
seem to want more room for sprawling; a more open space to strike out in
than here among friends and neighbours. I could get rich as well as any
man, if I tried my own way.'