They was just finishing their tea as ’e got there, and they all seemed so pleased to see ’im that it made it worse than ever for ’im.  Mrs. Cook, who ’ad pretty near finished, gave ’im her own cup to drink out of, and said that she ’ad dreamt of ’im the night afore last, and old Cook said that he ’ad got so good-looking ’e shouldn’t ’ave known him.

“I should ’ave passed ’im in the street,” he ses.  “I never see such an alteration.”

“They’ll be a nice-looking couple,” ses his wife, looking at a young chap, named George Smith, that ’ad been sitting next to Emma.

Charlie Tagg filled ’is mouth with bread and butter, and wondered ’ow he was to begin.  He squeezed Emma’s ’and just for the sake of keeping up appearances, and all the time ’e was thinking of the other gal waiting for ‘im thousands o’ miles away.

“You’ve come ‘ome just in the nick o’ time,” ses old Cook; “if you’d done it o’ purpose you couldn’t ’ave arranged it better.”

“Somebody’s birthday?” ses Charlie, trying to smile.

Old Cook shook his ’ead.  “Though mine is next Wednesday,” he ses, “and thank you for thinking of it.  No; you’re just in time for the biggest bargain in the chandlery line that anybody ever ’ad a chance of.  If you ‘adn’t ha’ come back we should have ‘ad to ha’ done it without you.”

“Eighty pounds,” ses Mrs. Cook, smiling at Charlie.  “With the money Emma’s got saved and your wages this trip you’ll ’ave plenty.  You must come round arter tea and ’ave a look at it.”

“Little place not arf a mile from ’ere,” ses old Cook.  “Properly worked up, the way Emma’ll do it, it’ll be a little fortune.  I wish I’d had a chance like it in my young time.”

He sat shaking his ’ead to think wot he’d lost, and Charlie Tagg sat staring at ’im and wondering wot he was to do.

“My idea is for Charlie to go for a few more v’y’ges arter they’re married while Emma works up the business,” ses Mrs. Cook; “she’ll be all right with young Bill and Sarah Ann to ’elp her and keep ’er company while he’s away.”

“We’ll see as she ain’t lonely,” ses George Smith, turning to Charlie.

Charlie Tagg gave a bit of a cough and said it wanted considering.  He said it was no good doing things in a ’urry and then repenting of ’em all the rest of your life.  And ’e said he’d been given to understand that chandlery wasn’t wot it ’ad been, and some of the cleverest people ’e knew thought that it would be worse before it was better.  By the time he’d finished they was all looking at ’im as though they couldn’t believe their ears.

“You just step round and ’ave a look at the place,” ses old Cook; “if that don’t make you alter your tune, call me a sinner.”

Charlie Tagg felt as though ‘e could ha’ called ‘im a lot o’ worse things than that, but he took up ’is hat and Mrs. Cook and Emma got their bonnets on and they went round.

“I don’t think much of it for eighty pounds,” ses Charlie, beginning his artfulness as they came near a big shop, with plate-glass and a double front.