"What did you pay?"
"Twenty cents."
"Sold yet?"
"No."
Dayton took the little parcel she was handing him. He had come in for a lead-pencil and had bought, in addition, a stamp-box, a buttonhook, and a plated silver photograph frame, not one of which newly acquired treasures he had the slightest use for. They were very neatly tied up, however. He wished Mrs. Jim would stick to her legitimate business which she did uncommonly well.
"I think I would sell out my 'H. O. P.' if I were you," he said.
"Isn't it going any higher?" she asked.
"Very likely; but it's a swindle."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I mean that the management's bad, and they don't know the first thing about what they've got, any way. Honestly, Mrs. Jim, it isn't safe to hold."