"Pack of fools!" growled old Malachi as the thump-thump of the drum drew
nearer. He rose and shifted his stool to a corner, for the way to the
back premises lay through the shop. Roger looked forth into the sunny
street, blinked, and, picking up a pair of pincers, returned to his watch.
The band came slowly down the street and halted outside--still in full
blast; for between the Market House and the Bowling Green there must be no
pause in the Flora-dance or its music. And presently the Mayor himself
thrust his red face in at the shop-door.
"Good-mornin'!" he nodded, jigging away with his feet. "You'll lev' us
come through, I suppose?"
"Welcome," grunted Roger.
"And, darn'ee, take care o' my cabbages!" added Malachi. "You ruined half
a score of 'em last year with your May-games."
"Cab--" Here the inexorable tune forced His Worship to face about and
twirl his partner. "Cabbages?" he resumed. "You dare to use such a word
to me, you saucy rascal? Why, I've sent better men than you to prison
for less!"
"I don't doubt it," retorted Malachi. "But King George is above us, and
holds even a Mayor responsible for what he treads on. Dance along out,
that's a dear man, and if you want to be frolicsome, keep to the paths."
"Of all the unpublicspirited houses I've danced into this day, this
here's the unpublicspiritedest!" exclaimed the Mayor. He had reached by
this time the door at the back of the shop, and would have said more; but
again the tune took him by the legs compelling him to twirl his partner,
and, twirling her, he was swept out of sight.
Roger Stephen still pored over his watch. Several of the dancers--had the
will to do it been enough--were minded to stop and rebuke him for his
churlishness. A tradesman at work in Helleston on Flora-day in the
morning was a scandalous sight. But Roger stood six-foot-three in his
socks, and had been a famous wrestler in his youth.
The giddy throng went by, his hunched shoulders expressing his contempt of
it. But when all the dancers had paraded through the shop and out into
Malachi's cabbage garden, a man appeared in the entrance and said--
"Arise, Master Roger, and dance--or otherwise as your feelings incline
you! For Doctor Gaye sends down his compliments, and your father's had a
stroke."