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