"Ye want to know how much she gave me, do ye?" he demanded hotly.
"Yes," said Paul Ford.
"How much she gave me for taking her that there purse?" Tommy Chadwick temporized.
He was obliged to temporize, because he could not quite resolve to seize the situation and deal with it once for all in a manner favourable to his dignity and to the ideals which he cherished.
"Yes," said Paul Ford.
"Well, I'll tell ye," said Thomas Chadwick—"though I don't know as it's any business of yours. But, as you're so curious!... She didn't give me anything. She asked me to have a little refreshment, like the lady she is. But she knew better than to offer Thomas Chadwick any pecooniary reward for giving her back something as she'd happened to drop. She's a lady, she is!"
"Oh!" said Paul Ford. "It don't cost much, being a lady!"
"But I'll tell ye what she did do," Thomas Chadwick went on, anxious, now that he had begun so well, to bring the matter to an artistic conclusion—"I'll tell ye what she did do. She give me a sovereign apiece for my grandsons—my eldest daughter's twins." Then, after an effective pause: "Ye can put that in your pipe and smoke it!... A sovereign apiece!"
"And have you handed it over?" Paul Ford inquired mildly, after a period of soft whistling.
"I've started two post-office savings bank accounts for 'em," said Thomas Chadwick, with ferocity.