she overhauled lot after lot, and valued it; in a
very short time Ernest himself began to have a pretty fair idea what each
lot should go for, and before the morning was over valued a dozen lots
running at prices about which Ellen said he would not hurt if he could
get them for that.

So far from disliking this work or finding it tedious, he liked it very
much, indeed he would have liked anything which did not overtax his
physical strength, and which held out a prospect of bringing him in
money. Ellen would not let him buy anything on the occasion of this
sale; she said he had better see one sale first and watch how prices
actually went. So at twelve o'clock when the sale began, he saw the lots
sold which he and Ellen had marked, and by the time the sale was over he
knew enough to be able to bid with safety whenever he should actually
want to buy. Knowledge of this sort is very easily acquired by anyone
who is in _bona fide_ want of it.

But Ellen did not want him to buy at auctions--not much at least at
present. Private dealing, she said, was best. If I, for example, had
any cast-off clothes, he was to buy them from my laundress, and get a
connection with other laundresses, to whom he might give a trifle more
than they got at present for whatever clothes their masters might give
them, and yet make a good profit. If gentlemen sold their things, he was
to try and get them to sell to him. He flinched at nothing; perhaps he
would have flinched if he had had any idea how _outre_ his proceedings
were, but the very ignorance of the world which had ruined him up till
now, by a happy irony began to work its own cure. If some malignant
fairy had meant to curse him in this respect, she had overdone her
malice. He did not know he was doing anything strange. He only knew
that he had no money, and must provide for himself, a wife, and a
possible family. More than this, he wanted to have some leisure in an
evening, so that he might read and write and keep up his music. If
anyone would show him how he could do better than he was doing, he should
be much obliged to them, but to himself it seemed that he was doing
sufficiently well; for at the end of the first week the pair found they
had made a clear profit of 3 pounds. In a few weeks this had increased
to 4 pounds, and by the New Year they had made a profit of 5 pounds in
one week.

Ernest had by this time been married some two months, for he had stuck to
his original