Come, I'll not be hard upon
you, as it's the first time you've dealt with me. That shawl's worth ten
shillings if it's worth a farthing, and I'll let you have it for seven
shillings and sixpence; half a crown down, and a shilling a fortnight
till it's paid up.'
Andrew threw the shawl over her shoulders, and turned her round to the
envying view of the assembled girls, who were not allowed to touch any of
his goods with their soiled hands. Martha softly stroked the bright blue
border, and felt its texture between her fingers; while she deliberated
within herself whether she could not buy it from the fund procured by the
bilberry picking in the autumn. As Stephen had never known the full
amount, she could withdraw the half-crown without his knowledge, and the
sixpence a week she could save out of her own earnings. In ten minutes,
while Andrew was bargaining with some of the others, she came to the
conclusion that she could not possibly do any longer without a new shawl;
so, telling the packman that she would be back again directly, she ran as
swiftly as she could over the cinder-hill homewards.
In her hurry to accompany Bess to the lane, she had left her cabin door
unfastened, never thinking of the danger of the open pit to her blind
grandfather and the child.
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