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pounds." Mrs. Cave took it on herself to apologise for her husband,
explaining that he was sometimes "a little odd," and as the two
customers left, the couple prepared for a free discussion of the
incident in all its bearings.
Mrs. Cave talked to her husband with singular directness. The poor
little man, quivering with emotion, muddled himself between his stories,
maintaining on the one hand that he had another customer in view, and on
the other asserting that the crystal was honestly worth ten guineas.
"
Why did you ask five pounds?" said his wife. "Do let me manage my
business my own way!" said Mr. Cave.
Mr. Cave had living with him a step-daughter and a step-son, and at
supper that night the transaction was re-discussed. None of them had a
high opinion of Mr. Cave's business methods, and this action seemed a
culminating folly.
"It's my opinion he's refused that crystal before," said the step-son, a
loose-limbed lout of eighteen.
"
But Five Pounds!" said the step-daughter, an argumentative young
woman of six-and-twenty.
Mr. Cave's answers were wretched; he could only mumble weak assertions
that he knew his own business best. They drove him from his half-eaten
supper into the shop, to close it for the night, his ears aflame and
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