"Well, you're wrong! He doesn't."
Mousey looked considerably surprised, and not a little curious. John watched her with secret delight, enjoying her bewilderment.
"He earns a little as a working jeweller," the boy proceeded, "but everyone in Haughton knows he makes most of his money in other ways than that. He lends money to people."
"Does he? How very kind of him!" Mousey exclaimed.
"Oh, very!" John responded, mimicking her tone; then he burst into a fit of loud laughter, and called her a "simpleton."
The little girl felt indignant and insulted. Her companion proceeded—
"He lends money to folks, and makes them pay large interest for it; and if they don't pay, he takes their furniture, or anything he can lay his hands on. Oh, he's a hard one, he is! He owns a row of houses that are let out in tenements, and he collects the rents every Saturday night. It's no good making excuses if the money isn't ready, I can tell you!"
"What are tenements?" Mousey asked, impelled to put the question from curiosity, though the minute before she had decided not to prolong the conversation.
"If you had a house, and let a part to one person, and a part to another, and so on, the different sets of rooms would be tenements," he explained. "Do you see?"
Mousey nodded. John's round, green eyes were watching every change of her face.