in sum for you and yer mother. I've had it in mind
since I don't know when. It's a fancy o' mine. And I canna' do it if I'm
to go all around th' Five Towns buying barracks."

Helen laughed. "What a man you are for exaggerating!" she flattered him.
Then she sat down.

He considered that he was gradually winding in his line with immense
skill. "Ay," he ejaculated, with an absent air, "it's a fancy o' mine."

"How much do you want to leave?" Helen questioned, faintly smiling.

"Don't you bother your head about that," said he. "You may take it from
me as it's a tidy sum. And when I'm dead and gone, and you've got it
all, then ye can do as ye feel inclined."

"I shall beat her, as sure as eggs!" he told himself.

"All this means that he'll give in when it comes to the point," she told
herself.

And aloud she said: "Have you had supper, uncle?"

"No," he replied.

The next development was that, without another word, she removed her
gloves, lifted her pale hands to her head, and slowly drew hatpins from
her hat. Then she removed her hat, and plunged the pins into it again.
He could scarcely refrain from snatching off his own tasselled Turkish
cap and pitching it in the air. He felt as if he had won the Battle of
Hastings, or defeated the captain of the bowling club in a single-handed
match.

"And to think," he reflected, "that I should ha' given in to her by this
time if I hadn't got more sense in my little finger than--" etc.

"I think I'll stay and cook you a bit of supper," said Helen. "I suppose
Georgiana is in the kitchen?"

"If her isn't, her's in the back entry," said Jimmy.

"What's she doing in the back entry?"

"Counting the stars," said Jimmy; "and that young man as comes with the
bread helping her, most like."

"I must talk to that girl." Helen rose.

"Ye may," said Jimmy; "but th' baker's man'll have th' last word, or
times is changed."

He was gay. He could not conceal his gaiety. He saw himself freed from
the menace of the thraldom of Mrs. Butt. He saw himself gourmandising
over the meals that Helen alone could cook. He saw himself trotting up
and down the streets of Bursley with the finest, smartest lass in the
Five Towns by his side. And scarcely a penny of extra expenditure! And
all this happy issue due to his diplomatic and histrionic skill! The
fact was, Helen really liked him. There could be no doubt about that.
She liked him, and she would not leave him. Also, she was a young woman
o