" said Robinson, "glass
is the most brilliant, and yet the cheapest; the most graceful and
yet the strongest. Though transparent it is impervious to wet. The
eye travels through it, but not the hailstorm. To the power of
gas it affords no obstacle, but is as efficient a barrier against
the casualties of the street as an iron shutter. To that which is
ordinary it lends a grace; and to that which is graceful it gives a
double lustre. Like a good advertisement, it multiplies your stock
tenfold, and like a good servant, it is always eloquent in praise of
its owner. I look upon plate glass, sir, as the most glorious product
of the age; and I regard the tradesman who can surround himself with
the greatest quantity of it, as the most in advance of the tradesmen
of his day. Oh, sir, whatever we do, let us have glass."

"It's beautiful to hear him talk," said Mr. Brown; "but it's the bill
I'm a thinking of."

"If you will only go enough ahead, Mr. Brown, you'll find that nobody
will trouble you with such bills."

"But they must be paid some day, George."

"Of course they must; but it will never do to think of that now.
In twelve months or so, when we have set the house well going, the
payment of such bills as that will be a mere nothing,--a thing that
will be passed as an item not worth notice. Faint heart never won
fair lady, you know, Mr. Brown." And then a cloud came across George
Robinson's brow as he thought of the words he had spoken; for his
heart had once been faint, and his fair lady was by no means won.

"That's quite true," said Jones; "it never does. Ha! ha! ha!"

Then the cloud went away from George Robinson's brow, and a stern
frown of settled resolution took its place. At that moment he made up
his mind, that when he might again meet that giant butcher he would
forget the difference in their size, and accost him as though they
two were equal. What though some fell blow, levelled as at an ox,
should lay him low for ever. Better that, than endure from day to day
the unanswered taunts of such a one as Jones!

Mr. Brown, though he was not quick-witted, was not deficient when the
feelings of man and man were concerned. He understood it all, and
taking advantage of a moment when Jones had stepped up the shop, he
pressed Robinson's hand and said,--"You shall have her, George. If
a father's word is worth anything, you shall have her." But in this
case,--as in so many others,--a father's word was not worth anything