“I thought he stirred,” she said, replacing the curtain; and then she hesitated, her hands fumbling with her apron.
“Ye’ve no word, I suppose, Arthur? Cicely hasn’t been gone an hour; she knew o’ no news, she said——”
“No word’s a good word, Sally,” Monjoy replied gently. “He has all he wants—money for garnish, ease o’ irons, and all you can think of; and the lawyers shall have every penny but he shall be back. Don’t worry. ‘No case’ is what John Emmason says.”
“What did he say o’ Jimmy?” She glanced towards the niche.
“His love he sent, and a kiss. That’ll make his home-coming glad. Keep all as tidy as a new pin for a little longer, and let Cicely help you all she can.”
“D’ye want anything now?”
“No.”
She sighed and went out. The men remained silent for a full minute, and then Moon muttered: “Thank God I bring trouble to no woman.” They resumed their discussion.
“Another thing,” said the merchant. “John there brings the silver in, and I keep the books, and bring most o’ the gold. John and me’s your outriders, that can tell the way things are going. Now ask John if this isn’t true. Though the most shuts their eyes and thinks none the worse of a guinea after we’ve had it a day or two, yet there’s others wouldn’t lend us a crown or a Portugal, no, not to have it back an hour after with interest paid safe as a bank. They’re quiet, that sort, but they’re always there. They’ve been there all along, and I know who they are.—Ay, I see this plating idea well enough; it’s good, and does away with a deal o’ borrowing; but these others is still there. So this new man has that to start wi’. He may be another Huggins, or he mayn’t; give him no advantage. He must be watched for the present from getting up to doffing his shirt again. The clogger’s shop—we’re agreed on that; and past Wadsworth Scout a crow must be set behind every whin and stone. It’s expense, but it’s the cheapest. We’re the Exec’tive, and that’s my vote; that, and shift the Forge to Brotherton, and all meetings after this at the ‘Gooise.’”
“It’s right what Matthew says about them others,” Raikes observed from the window-seat; “things has got very tight lately. Your plating-notion’s naught but just come i’ time.”