and they had come from the largest furnishing ware-houses in that part of England.
Three-quarters of an hour were occupied in getting the cases to Jim's rooms.The wary Jim did not show the amazement he felt at his patron's munificence; and presently the senior partner came into the passage, and wondered what was lumbering upstairs.
'Oh--it's only some things of mine,' said Jim coolly.
'Bearing upon the coming event--eh?' said his partner.
'Exactly,' replied Jim.
Mr.Vine, with some astonishment at the number of cases, shortly after went away to the kiln; whereupon Jim shut himself into his rooms, and there he might have been heard ripping up and opening boxes with a cautious hand, afterwards appearing outside the door with them empty, and carrying them off to the outhouse.
A triumphant look lit up his face when, a little later in the afternoon, he sent into the vale to the dairy, and invited Margery and her father to his house to supper.
She was not unsociable that day, and, her father expressing a hard and fast acceptance of the invitation, she perforce agreed to go with him.Meanwhile at home, Jim made himself as mysteriously busy as before in those rooms of his, and when his partner returned he too was asked to join in the supper.
At dusk Hayward went to the door, where he stood till he heard the voices of his guests from the direction of the low grounds, now covered with their frequent fleece of fog.The voices grew more distinct, and then on the white surface of the fog there appeared two trunkless heads, from which bodies and a horse and cart gradually extended as the approaching pair rose towards the house.
When they had entered Jim pressed Margery's hand and conducted her up to his rooms, her father waiting below to say a few words to the senior lime-burner.
'Bless me,' said Jim to her, on entering the sitting-room; 'I quite forgot to get a light beforehand; but I'll have one in a jiffy.'
Margery stood in the middle of the dark room, while Jim struck a match; and then the young girl's eyes were conscious of a burst of light, and the rise into being of a pair of handsome silver candlesticks containing two candles that Jim was in the act of lighting.
'Why--where--you have candlesticks like that?' said Margery.Her eyes flew round the room as the growing candle-flames showed other articles.'Pictures too--and lovely china--why I knew nothing of this, I declare.'
'Yes--a few things that came to me by accident,' said Jim in quiet tones.
'And a great gold clock under a glass, and a cupid swinging for a pendulum; and O what a lovely work-table--woods of every colour--and a work-box to match.May I look inside that work-box, Jim?--whose is it?'
'O yes; look at it, of course.It is a poor enough thing, but 'tis mine; and it will belong to the woman I marry, whoever she may be, as well as all the other things here.'
'And the curtains and the looking-glasses: why I declare I can see myself in a hundred places.'
'That tea-set,' said Jim, placidly pointing to a gorgeous china service and a large silver tea-pot on the side table, 'I don't use at present, being a bachelor-man; but, says I to myself, "whoever Imarry will want some such things for giving her parties; or I can sell em"--but I haven't took steps for't yet--'
'Sell 'em--no, I should think not,' said Margery with earnest reproach.'Why, I hope you wouldn't be so foolish! Why, this is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of when I told you of the things women could want--of course not meaning myself particularly.
I had no idea that you had such valuable--'
Margery was unable to speak coherently, so much was she amazed at the wealth of Jim's possessions.
At this moment her father and the lime-burner came upstairs; and to appear womanly and proper to Mr.Vine, Margery repressed the remainder of her surprise.
As for the two elderly worthies, it was not till they entered the room and sat down that their slower eyes discerned anything brilliant in the appointments.Then one of them stole a glance at some article, and the other at another; but each being unwilling to express his wonder in the presence of his neighbours, they received the objects before them with quite an accustomed air; the lime-burner inwardly trying to conjecture what all this meant, and the dairyman musing that if Jim's business allowed him to accumulate at this rate, the sooner Margery became his wife the better.Margery retreated to the work-table, work-box, and tea-service, which she examined with hushed exclamations.
An entertainment thus surprisingly begun could not fail to progress well.Whenever Margery's crusty old father felt the need of a civil sentence, the flash of Jim's fancy articles inspired him to one;while the lime-burner, having reasoned away his first ominous thought that all this had come out of the firm, also felt proud and blithe.
Jim accompanied his dairy friends part of the way home before they mounted.Her father, finding that Jim wanted to speak to her privately, and that she exhibited some elusiveness, turned to Margery and said; 'Come, come, my lady; no more of this nonsense.You just step behind with that young man, and I and the cart will wait for you.'
Margery, a little scared at her father's peremptoriness, obeyed.It was plain that Jim had won the old man by that night's stroke, if he had not won her.
'I know what you are going to say, Jim,' she began, less ardently now, for she was no longer under the novel influence of the shining silver and glass.'Well, as you desire it, and as my father desires it, and as I suppose it will be the best course for me, I will fix the day--not this evening, but as soon as I can think it over.'