"Miss Ingamells," he said: and, as she did not look up immediately, "I
say, Miss Ingamells! How much does father take off in the shilling to
auntie when she buys anything?"
"Don't ask _me_, Master Edwin," said Miss Ingamells; "_I_ don't know. How
should I know?"
"Well, then," he muttered, "I shall pay full price for it--that's all."
He could not wait, and he wanted to be on the safe side.
Miss Ingamells gave him change for his half-sovereign in a strictly
impartial manner, to indicate that she accepted no responsibility. And
the squaring of Edwin's shoulders conveyed to Miss Ingamells that he
advised her to keep carefully within her own sphere, and not to make
impertinent inquiries about the origin of the half-sovereign, which he
could see intrigued her acutely. He now owned the box; it was not a box
of colours, but a box of enchantment. He had had colour-boxes before,
but nothing to compare with this, nothing that could have seemed magical
to anybody wiser than a very small boy. Then he bought some
cartridge-paper; he considered that cartridge-paper would be good enough
for preliminary experiments.
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