A tapping was heard on the banisters at the head of the stairs.
“There’s Mounseer, Lucy,” said Susan, “waiting to take you to school.”
The little girl sprang up; she liked her morning walk with the old Frenchman. She ran up the stairs, but returned in a few moments.
“Mounseer says will you please lend him a hammer and chisel,” she said.
“Willing, and anything else,” said Gollop. “But ask him if I can do the hammering for him. I’ve been reckoned a handy man in my time; you have to turn your hand to any odd job at sea.”
The girl gave the message and returned.
“Mounseer says it’s a trifle, and he won’t trouble you!”
“Very well then; take him the things, and welcome.”
The Frenchman laid the tools on a chair in his room, then locked the door and started with Lucy for the half-mile walk to her school.
Soon afterwards Gollop and Martin went out together, the former to take his morning draught with his cronies, the latter to make another effort to find work.