"'Tis not I would cry 'Alack,' if that befel me," I said with a grin.
"Ah, 'tis not the money," she says, "but the loneliness; and to think that it's all lost to business; for I am my own mistress," she says, "and can do what I like, having no child to consider."
"Well," said I, "I have one now, and an amazing beauty." She looked sourly at Miss Nancy, who flushed very deep. Just then I was digged in the ribs t'other side, and, turning, found the grocer with a grin on his face.
"Pretty wench," says he with a wink.
"That is so," said I, tossing off the wine, which was not so ill.
"There's none too many like her about the town," he says again with his significant wink.
"What the plague—" says I, but he winked again.
"I seen what you was after from the first," he said.
"The devil you did!" I said, and stared at him.
He dug his thumb into me again. "Ten guineas for her!" he said with a knowing air.