while he lay still....

"Well, O' Man?" said Johnson, when Mr. Polly came down to breakfast,

and Mrs. Johnson looked up brightly. Mr. Polly had never felt

breakfast so unattractive before.

Just a day or so more, O' Man--to turn it over in my mind," he said.

You'll get the place snapped up," said Johnson.

There were times in those last few days of coyness with his destiny

when his engagement seemed the most negligible of circumstances, and

times--and these happened for the most part at nights after Mrs.

Johnson had indulged everybody in a Welsh rarebit--when it assumed so

sinister and portentous an appearance as to make him think of suicide.

And there were times too when he very distinctly desired to be

married, now that the idea had got into his head, at any cost. Also he

tried to recall all the circumstances of his proposal, time after

time, and never quite succeeded in recalling what had brought the

thing off. He went over to Stamton with a becoming frequency, and

kissed all his cousins, and Miriam especially, a great deal, and found

it very stirring and refreshing. They all appeared to know; and Minnie

was tearful, but resigned. Mrs. Larkins met him, and indeed enveloped

him, with unwonted warmth, and there was a big pot of household jam

for tea. And he could not make up his mind to sign his name to

anything about the shop, though it crawled nearer and nearer to him,

153

The History of Mr Polly