“’Appy returns to ee, my man!”
Awkwardly he stood there for a moment, fumbling with something he held in his hand.
“This do be the half-a-crown as your Granny always gived ee when your birthday comed nigh.”
As he put the money on the table there were tears in his eyes, and he turned abruptly and left.
“Granfäather do be breakin’ up,” sighed Mrs. Tregennis. “Never been the same he haven’t since Gran died. He do miss her somethin’ awful, and we shan’t have him long. Ah, well,” she sighed again, as she rolled up her sleeves to the elbow in readiness for the washing-up; “there do be a sight of weariness in the world as well as joy. We’ve no cause to grumble much, ’tis true; but somehow this mornin’ I be altogether down, and there’s where ’tis to!”
Just before tea that day, when Tommy was playing on the sands, Mrs. Tregennis introduced a subject that was much on her mind.
“School begins Monday, Tom,” she reminded him.
“Both?” he asked, laconically.
Mrs. Tregennis nodded affirmatively.
“Seems on’y right to tell Miss Lavinia,” she went on to say. Then, after a rather long pause, “I suppose she’m well enough off; I suppose she’ve enough to live?”