“Useful!” cried Mrs Van. “Ah!”
Then old Luke chuckled and drew the fish from the basket.
“Fine one, ain’t it?” he said.
“A beauty,” cried Mrs Van Heldre ecstatically.
“Pshah!” ejaculated Uncle Luke. “Ma’am you don’t care for it a bit; but there’s more than I want, and it will help keep your servants.”
“It would, Luke,” said Van Heldre laughing as the fish was laid in the dish, “but they will not touch it. Well?”
“Eh? What do you mean by well?” snorted the old man with a suspicious look. “Out with it.”
“Out with what?”
“What you have brought.”
The two men gazed in each other’s faces, the merchant looking half amused, the visitor annoyed; but his dry countenance softened into a smile and he turned to Mrs Van Heldre. “Artful!” he said dryly. “Don’t you find him too cunning to get on with?”