"Then is he going to let them season for ever?" he said.
Howell Gruffydd smiled soothingly.—"Naw-w-w! Not for ev-er, Mr. Garden!"
"It's a good job he hasn't got to get his living in Manchester," Mr. Garden observed.
At that Howell Gruffydd clasped his hands, as if he congratulated himself that an interesting rumour was confirmed.
"Indeed, now," he said, "they do say that the pip-ple there is not the same as the pip-ple here!"
At this point Mrs. Garden's voice was raised. She was on her knees by the boxes, and could not find the sugar for tea. At the word "tea," Howell Gruffydd broke out with eager hospitality.
"Indeed it is cup of tea I came about," he said. "I say to Mrs. Gruffydd, 'They come all this way,' I say, 'and they will be want-ting cup of tea whatever.' It is all ready ... Eesaac Oliver!"—he called from the doorway—"run to your mother, and say we be there in one minnit! And do not answer me in Welss when there are pip-ple who do not understand it—where are your manners, indeed!" He turned to the new-comers again. "You s'all have cup of tea whatever, Mrs. Garden—it cost you noth-thing—and the young gentleman, he is down at the boats, but Eesaac Oliver s'all fetch him—come on——"
Howell Gruffydd, the grocer, speaks rather better English to-day than he spoke then, but there is no more quickness and keenness in his black-lashed light-blue eyes, and no more persuasiveness in his purring voice. To the half-unpacked boxes of provisions on the floor he did not drop an eye. He led the way past half a dozen cottages to the little shop with showcards and paper packages in the diminutive window. He showed them in and round the counter, lifting the old curtain that shut off the parlour from the public part of the shop. Blodwen, his wife, in a clean apron that showed the knife-edged creases of its ironing, was curtsying as if she did not know how to stop. The parlour communicated with the inner side of the counter, and behind the counter, on the left, was the window. Bottles and canisters stood on the shelves, and below them were innumerable small drawers. The fire-place had a high mantelpiece with countless china objects upon it, and a large dresser with blue and white plates stood against the inner wall. Next to the dresser was a tall clock, with a ship sailing round the world on the dial. A gigantic black turnip of a kettle sent out a cloud of steam; cranpogs were keeping hot in a dish within the fender; and near them an enormous marmalade-coloured cat slept. The room smelt of pepper and soap and pickles and cheese, and Howell Gruffydd's guests filled it. He helped his wife to wait upon them, and in the intervals attended to the shop. A little girl came in for a pennyworth of bicarbonate of soda, and Howell, returning from serving her, again showed his white, but false, teeth.
"It maake the tea last longer," he said, with a jerk of his head; "but there is no bi——" he smiled again apologetically, though he was perfectly well able to pronounce the word, "—there is none of that in this tea, Mrs. Garden. It is not tea like the fine pip-ple in Manchester drink, but we are simple pip-ple here. Blodwen, the cranpogs; make a good tea, Mr. Garden; indeed, you eat noth-thing; tut, tut, they taake up no room!—You say what is that, young gentleman? That is a Welss Bible. Aha, you cannot read that! Nor you cannot say, 'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychyndrobwlantysiligogogoch!'—You try? I say it slowly——"
Though Howell had repeated the jaw-breaker twenty times, John Willie Garden would still have maintained the silence of defence.