_August eighth. Aged Fifteen._
It is only a month since the Donnans opened their new shop up on the
open square facing the market hill, and not far from the railway
station. It was one of a row of villas, mostly tenanted by men who had
returned from the "pack"--that is, who had made a neat little fortune in
the business which calls itself Credit Drapery, but which, perhaps
undeservedly, is called much harder names by its clients, especially
when its back is turned.
These, being the aristocracy of a Shilling-a-Week and Cent.-per-Cent.,
objected exceedingly to a mere confectioner's shop thrusting its nose
into the midst of their blue-stone walls, picked out by window-sills and
lintels of raw-beef Locharbriggs freestone. But they could not help it,
and after the chief of them all, Oliphant McGill, had smelt the now
floury fist of the Reformed Idler, and been informed what would happen
if he "heard a wurrrd out of the heads av wan o' them"--there fell a
great peace on Whinstone Villas.
Some even became customers, and the new business increased with
wonderous rapidity. Butcher Donnan became Sweet-Cake Donnan, but that
made no difference to his force of arm, or to the respect in which he
was universally held.
As he had prophesied, it was not long till he had a pale-blue-and-gold
covered van on the road, dandily hooded in case of rain, and with two
spy-holes so that the driver could see for himself what was coming up
behind him.
From the Cave of Mystery high up on Hugh John's hill we could see it
crawling along the roads (really it was going quite fast), like a lumpy
cerulean beetle, the like of which for brilliance is not to be found in
_Curtis_.
And the driver was Butcher Donnan himself. He knew all the farmers, and
as he had made one fortune already, as fortunes went in Edam, the people
were the readier to deal with him. Sometimes even the poorest would save
up a penny for one of Mrs. Donnan's sponge-cakes. It was soon called
the "Watering Cart," because in hot weather you could tell when it had
gone along the road by the drip from the ice underneath, by means of
which the jellies and confections were kept cool, while in winter the
blue-and-gold beetle steamed like a volcano with hot mince-pies. Oh,
Butcher Donnan believed in delivering his goods to the customer in the
finest possible condition!
But this same Butcher Donnan being now driver and salesman-out-of-doors,
and Mrs. Donnan equally busy in the kitchen, it was obvious that some
one must be found for the shop. How _I_ should have loved the job! But a
certain Eben Dickson, apprentice with Nipper at the down town business,
was called in, and so thoroughly proved his liking for the place in the
course of a single afternoon that a more permanent and less appreciative
successor was sought for.
Eben was laid up for several days, owing to an accident which happened
to him when Butcher Donnan returned from his journeyings afield. It is
understood that Nipper also remonstrated with him, without, however, the
use of many words.
The van had therefore to be put out of commission for several days till
another arrangement was possible. And again it was Hugh John who, with
his eyelids half closed and looking at the bright landscape through the
long three-draw telescope, cut the knot with a carelessly breathed
suggestion.
"_Why not ask Elizabeth Fortinbras?_"
"They would never dare!" said I. "Old Fortinbras thinks himself no end
of a swell!"
"Yes," said Hugh John, with tranquil irony, "he has failed in at least
four businesses--last of all in a stamp-shop at East Dene, while the
Donnans have only succeeded in one--and are on the point of making
another fortune in the second. But let them ask Elizabeth. She will not
say 'no'!"
"What of her mother?" I said--"her father?"
"Her mother cannot support her--her father won't. In six months she will
have to support them both!" said the philosophic Hugh John. "You ask
Lizzie. Lizzie is a sensible girl."