“Two shillin’. Orrigh’,” and instantly what remained of the new customer’s week’s wages was scattered about the counter. Mrs. May took two shillings and returned the rest; which with some difficulty was thrust back into the pocket. And the new customer, after looking narrowly about him in search of his purchase, and at last discovering it under his arm, sallied forth with a wipe against the other door-post, and continued his winding way: a solemn and portentous bricklayer, with red paint on his shoulders and whiskers, and a bladder of lard that slipped sometimes forward and sometimes backward from his embrace, and was a deal of trouble to pick up again.
Here was a profit of sixpence at a stroke, unlikely as the chance was to recur; and it raised Nan’s spirits, unreasonably enough. Still, the bricklayer brought luck of a sort. For there were three more customers within the next hour, two bringing a halfpenny and one a penny. And in the evening five or six came, one spending as much as fourpence. This was better, perhaps, but poor enough. At ten that night Nan May reckoned her profit for the day at ninepence farthing, including the bricklayer’s sixpence; and she was sick with waiting and faint with fear. At half-past ten Uncle Isaac turned up.
“Ah hum,” he said; “bin paintin’. Might ’a’ laid it on a bit evener. There’s right ways o’ layin’ on paint, an’ there’s wrong ways, an’ one way ain’t the same as the other.” He raised his finger at Johnny instructively. “Far from it and contrairy, there’s a great difference.” Uncle Isaac paused, and no further amplification of his proposition occurring to him, he turned to Mrs. May. “’Ow’s trade?” he asked.
Nan May shook her head sadly. “Very bad, uncle,” she said. “Hardly any at all.” And she felt nearer crying than ever since the funeral.
“Ah,” said Uncle Isaac, sitting on a packing case—empty, but intended to look full; “ah, what you want’s Enterprise. Enterprise; that’s what you want. What is it as stimilates trade an’ encourages prosperity to—to the latest improvements? Enterprise. Why is commercial opulentness took—at least, wafted—commercial opulentness wafted round the ’ole world consekince o’ what? Consekince o’ Enterprise.” Uncle Isaac tapped the counter with his forefinger and gazed solemnly in Nan May’s troubled face. “Consekince o’ Enterprise,” he repeated slowly, with another tap. Then he added briskly, with a glance at the inner door: “’Adjer supper?”
“No, uncle,” Nan answered. “I never thought of it. But, now you’re here, p’raps you’ll have a bit with us?”
“Ah—don’t mind if I do,” Uncle Isaac responded cheerfully. “That looks a nice little bit o’ bacon. Now a rasher auf that, an’ a hegg—got a hegg? O yus.” He saw a dozen in a basin. “A rasher auf that, an’ a hegg or two, ’ud be just the thing, with a drop o’ beer, wouldn’t it?”
Johnny fetched the beer, and Uncle Isaac had two rashers and four eggs; and he finished with a good solid piece of bread, and the first slice—a large one—out of the Dutch cheese from the counter. Nan May made no more than a pretence at eating a little bread and cheese.
When at last the jug was empty, and Uncle Isaac was full, he leaned back in his chair, and for some minutes exercised his lips in strange workings and twistings, with many incidental clicks and sucks and fizzes, while he benignantly contemplated the angle of the ceiling. When at last the display flagged, he brought his gaze gradually lower, till it rested on the diminished piece of bacon. “None so bad, that bacon,” he observed, putting his head aside with a critical regard. “Though p’raps rayther more of a breakfast specie than a supper.” He laid his head to the other side, as one anxious to be impartial. “Yus,” he went on thoughtfully, “more of a breakfast specie, as you might say.” Then after a pause, he added, with the air of one announcing a brilliant notion:—“I b’lieve—yus, I do b’lieve I’ll try a bit for breakfast to-morrer mornin’!”
“If you like, uncle,” Nan answered, a little faintly. “But—but-” timidly—“I was thinking p’raps it’ll make it look rather small to—to put on the counter.”