No one appeared. The wheels of the distant cart scraped slowly along the road, but this was the only sound the Cheap Jack heard.
He whistled softly again.
And as the cart took the sharp turn of the road, and was lost to sight, the miller’s man appeared, and the Cheap Jack greeted him in the softest tone he had yet employed. “Ah, there you are, my dear!”
Meanwhile, Mrs. Lake sat within, and looked ruefully at the damaged frame, and wished that the master, or at least the man, had happened to be at home.
It is to be feared that our self-reproach for having done wrong is not always so certain, or so keen, as our self-reproach for having allowed ourselves to suffer wrong—in a bad bargain.
Whether this particular picture was a bad bargain it is not easy to decide.
It was scandalously dear for its condition, and for what it had cost the hunchback, but it was cheap for the pleasure it gave to the little Jan.
CHAPTER XI.
SCARECROWS AND MEN.—JAN REFUSES TO “MAKE GEARGE.”—UNCANNY.—“JAN’S OFF.”-THE MOON AND THE CLOUDS.
The picture gave Jan great pleasure, but it proved a stumbling-block on the road to learning.