agency might be held on terms agreeable to Mr. Garth, whom he would be glad to see at the Hall at twelve o’clock on the following day.
“He writes handsomely, doesn’t he, Susan?” said Caleb, turning his eyes upward to his wife, who raised her hand from his shoulder to his ear, while she rested her chin on his head. “Brooke didn’t like to ask me himself, I can see,” he continued, laughing silently.
“Here is an honor to your father, children,” said Mrs. Garth, looking round at the five pair of eyes, all fixed on the parents. “He is asked to take a post again by those who dismissed him long ago. That shows that he did his work well, so that they feel the want of him.”
“Like Cincinnatus—hooray!” said Ben, riding on his chair, with a pleasant confidence that discipline was relaxed.
“Will they come to fetch him, mother?” said Letty, thinking of the Mayor and Corporation in their robes.
Mrs. Garth patted Letty’s head and smiled, but seeing that her husband was gathering up his letters and likely soon to be out of reach in that sanctuary “business,” she pressed his shoulder and said emphatically—
“Now, mind you ask fair pay, Caleb.”
“Oh yes,” said Caleb, in a deep voice of assent, as if it would be unreasonable to suppose anything else of him.
“It’ll come to between four and five hundred, the two together.”
Then with a little start of remembrance he said, “Mary, write and give up that school. Stay and help your mother. I’m as pleased as Punch, now I’ve thought of that.”