"By Gum, you're right. Of course she's going to help. Make a rare saleswoman, too."
"I should love to help!" said Susan eagerly. "You'd soon teach me, Joe."
"All the tricks in the trade, Susie, and perhaps one or two of our own."
The girl opened wider her honest eyes. "Must there be tricks?" she asked, and a finer ear than Quinney's might have detected a note of anxiety.
"Bless your innocent heart—yes! Dessay I shall learn a bit from you. Course o' Shakespeare now, to improve one's powers o' speech."
He laughed so hilariously that Mrs. Biddlecombe held up a restraining finger.
"We're semi-detached, you know."
"I'm rich enough not to care what Laburnum Row thinks or says," he declared. "What day will suit you to get married, Susie?"
"Oh, Joe—this is sudden."
"Sudden? I was tellin' your mother that I had to go to France on biz, but I want you to come along, too, to do the parleyvooin'. Can you get ready in a month?"