as far as his appreciation
went. And with this judgment Will at once agreed; before long, he would
have inclined to be more express in his good opinion. Before summer
came, he found himself looking forward to the girl's appearance in the
shop, with a sense of disappointment when--as generally happened--Mrs.
Cross came in person. The charm of the young face lay for him in its
ever-present suggestion of a roguishly winsome smile, which made it
difficult not to watch too intently the play of her eyes and lips.
Then, her way of speaking, which was altogether her own. It infused
with a humorous possibility the driest, most matter-of-fact remarks,
and Will had to guard himself against the temptation to reply in a
corresponding note.

"I suppose you see no more of those people--what's their name--the
Crosses?" he let fall, as if casually, one evening when Franks had come
to see him.

"Lost sight of them altogether," was the reply. "Why do you ask?"

"I happened to think of them," said Will; and turned to another subject.

CHAPTER 23

Was he to be a grocer for the rest of his life?--This question, which
at first scarcely occurred to him, absorbed as he was in the problem of
money-earning for immediate needs, at length began to press and worry.
Of course he had meant nothing of the kind; his imagination had seen in
the shop a temporary expedient; he had not troubled to pursue the
ultimate probabilities of the life that lay before him, but contented
himself with the vague assurance of his hopeful temper. Yet where was
the way out? To save money, to accumulate sufficient capital for his
release, was an impossibility, at all events within any reasonable
time. And for what windfall could he look? Sherwood's ten thousand
pounds hovered in his memory, but no more substantial than any
fairy-tale. No man living, it seemed to him, had less chance of being
signally favoured by fortune. He had donned his apron and aproned he
must remain.

Suppose, then, he so far succeeded in his business as to make a little
more than the household at St. Neots required; suppose it became
practicable to--well, say, to think of marriage, of course on the most
modest basis; could he quite see himself offering to the girl he chose
the hand and heart of a grocer? He laughed. It was well to laugh;
merriment is the great digestive, and an unspeakable boon to the man
capable of it in all but every situation; but what if _she_ also
laughed, and not