“But that will not do at all! Conceive of everyone’s astonishment if such a quantity of goods were to be delivered to the Crowford gatekeeper! Depend upon it, the news would very soon be all over the county that an excessively strange man had taken Brean’s place here. It must come to the ears of the trustee controllers, and you will have them descending on you before you have had time to turn round.”
“I am afraid I am quite corkbrained,” said John meekly. “What must I do instead?”
She glanced at the list again, and then up at him. “I think I had best procure these things for you,” she suggested. “That, you see, will occasion no surprise, for I very often go shopping in Tideswell.”
“Thank you,” he said, smiling. “But I must buy some shirts, and some shoes and stockings, and you can hardly do that for me, ma’am!”
“No,” she agreed. She considered him anew, and added candidly: “And it will be wonderful if you can find any to fit you!”
“Oh, I don’t despair of that! There are bound to be plenty of big fellows in the district, and somebody must make clothes for ’em!” said the Captain cheerfully. “As a matter of fact, I saw a fine, lusty specimen not an hour ago. Cowman, I think. If I’d thought of it, I’d have asked him the name of his tailor.”
She gave a gurgle of laughter. “Oh, if you can be content with a flannel shirt—or, perhaps, a smock—!”
He grinned at her. “Why not? Did you take me for a Bond Street beau? No, no! I was never one of your high sticklers!”
“I take you for a madman,” she said severely.
“Well, they used to call me Crazy Jack in Spain,” he admitted. “But I’m not dangerous, you know—not a bit!”