“Oh, then I’ll put the card up!”

“Do!  I wouldn’t lose no time about it.  And listen to this, Mrs. Bubb.  Next time you see your friend Mrs. Clover, you may tell her that if she wants to know where her precious ’usband is she’s not to ask me, ’cos I wouldn’t let her know, not if she was on her death-bed!”

Having uttered this surprising message, with point and emphasis worthy of its significance, Polly hastened from the house.  And Mrs. Bubb stood looking after her in bewilderment.

CHAPTER VIII

MR. GAMMON’S RESOLVE

Convinced that his life was blighted, Mr. Gammon sang and whistled with more than usual vivacity as he dressed each morning.  It was not in his nature to despond; he had received many a knock-down blow, and always came up fresher after it.  Mrs. Clover’s veto upon his tender hopes with regard to Minnie had not only distressed, but greatly surprised him; for during the last few months he had often said to himself that, whether Minnie favoured his suit or not, her mother’s goodwill was a certainty.  His advances had been of the most delicate, no word of distinct wooing had passed his lips; but he thought of Minnie a great deal, and came to the decision that in her the hopes of his life were centred.  It might be that Minnie had no inkling of his intentions; she was so modest, so unlike the everyday girls who tittered and ogled with every marriageable man; on that very account he had made her his ideal.  And Mrs. Clover would help him as a mother best knows how.  The shock of learning that Mrs. Clover would do no such thing utterly confused his mind.  He still longed for Minnie, yet seemed of a sudden hopelessly remote from her.  He could not determine whether he had given her up or not; he did not know whether to bow before Mrs. Clover or to protest and persevere.  He liked Mrs. Clover far too much to be angry with her; he respected Minnie far too much to annoy her by an unwelcome courtship; he wished, in fact, that he had not made a fool of himself that evening, and wanted things to be as they were before.

In the meantime he occupied himself in looking out for a new engagement Plenty were to be had, but he aimed at something better than had satisfied him hitherto.  He must get a “permanency”; at his age it was time he settled into a life of respect able routine.  But for his foolish habit of living from hand to mouth, now in this business, now in that, indulging his taste for variety, Mrs. Clover would never, he felt sure, have “put her foot down” in that astonishing way.  The best thing he could do was to show himself in a new light.