But before he could do it she had swept his
belongings together. "You won't do anything of the kind," she said.
"Why not?"
"Because we won't have it. Pack them up."
"Oh, but," Johnny protested, "it would be a little help, it would
indeed; they would fetch something, the glasses are good ones, though
a bit old-fashioned, and the watch--"
"I don't care, I won't have it," and Julia took the matter into her
own hands, and began with a flushed face to re-pack the things
herself.
"Is it that you think I can't spare them?" Gillat asked, still
bewildered. "I can--what an idea," he laughed. "What do I want with
field-glasses, now? And as to a watch, my time's nothing to me!"
"No, I dare say not," Julia said, but she tied the parcel firmly, then
she gave it to him. "Take it away," she said, "and don't try to sell a
thing."
She opened the door as she spoke, and he, accepting it as a hint of
dismissal, meekly followed her from the room. When they had reached
the hall above he ventured on a last protest. "Why may I not sell
anything?" he asked.
"Because we have not quite come to that," she said, with a ring of
bitterness in her voice: "We have come pretty low, I know, with our
dodges and our shifts, but we haven't quite come to depriving you.
Johnny"--and she stretched out a hand to him, a thing which was rare,
for no one thought it necessary to shake hands with Mr.
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