back, ladies," he continued, releasing Annie's hand to waft them before
him toward the rear of the store. "You'll find Mrs. Gerrish in my room
there--my Growlery, as I call it." He seemed to think he had invented the
name. "And Mrs. Gerrish tells me that you've really come back," he said,
leaning decorously toward Annie as they walked, "with the intention of
taking up your residence permanently among us. You will find very few
places like Hatboro'."

As he spoke, walking with his hands clasped behind him, he glanced to
right and left at the shop-girls on foot behind the counter, who dropped
their eyes under their different bangs as they caught his glance, and
bridled nervously. He denied them the use of chewing-gum; he permitted no
conversation, as he called it, among them; and he addressed no jokes or
idle speeches to them himself. A system of grooves overhead brought to his
counting-room the cash from the clerks in wooden balls, and he returned the
change, and kept the accounts, with a pitiless eye for errors. The women
were afraid of him, and hated him with bitterness, which exploded at crises
in excesses of hysterical impudence.

His store was an example of variety, punctuality, and quality. Upon the
theory, for which he deserved the credit, of giving to a country place
the advantages of one of the great city establishments, he was gradually
gathering, in their fashion, the small commerce into his hands. He had
already opened his bazaar through into the adjoining store, which he had
bought out, and he kept every sort of thing desired or needed in a country
town, with a tempting stock of articles before unknown to the shopkeepers
of Hatboro'. Everything was of the very quality represented; the prices
were low, but inflexible, and cash payments, except in the case of some
rich customers of unimpeachable credit, were invariably exacted; at the
same time every reasonable facility for the exchange or return of goods was