So the lad went forth, leaving his half-pint half drunk on the table, to seek the shop of the lapidary.
The establishment was small and shabby, but shabbier was the little man with spectacles on his nose and unshaven chin, no collar but a soiled neckcloth, who sat at a table engaged on setting a cut pebble.
For some time he did not look up. He continued upon what he was doing; but he had seen the boots and lower portion of the trousers of Jack as he entered, and knew that they did not belong to a purchaser. Consequently he did not hurry nor desist.
'Well?' he asked at length.
'Mr. Gasset,' said Jack, 'I have come to ask you if you require some one to act as your agent with your cut stones, seals, and brooches, and get them disposed of for you.'
'Jane Marley was here proposing the same thing for herself. But I was to take both in. Two women would have eaten all the profits. You are a growing lad, voracious in appetite. I could not afford it.'
'But I would go about.'
'Consider the expense and the uncertainty. I am too old to run risks. The profits are very small. No; I must go on in the old way.'
He nodded to Jack to leave.
As Jack left the shop Mrs. Gasset entered. 'What has young Rattenbury been here for?' she asked.