A STEADY MAN 



take them/' says Miss Caroline in her Irish way. " One 

 of them will come up and declare they'll all be 'lost 

 entirely, ruined out and out ' for the want of five pounds. 

 'Are you sure you couldn't do with thirty shillings, 

 now?' I say to them. 'Oh, Miss Caroline 'it will be 

 then 7 as thrue as I'm a living woman, I couldn't do with 

 less than two pound ten!' ... I get at the truth that 

 way," she adds. 



It is Miss Margaret who undertakes the sale of goods 

 which have already cost Kilcoultra so dear, and no one 

 can say that she shows a commercial spirit. 

 " Let me see now," she will say, fingering the stuff and 

 splendid stuff it is with tentative finger and thumb. " I 

 think we paid three-and-tenpence a yard for this, or maybe 

 it was four shillings, but with a delighted smile " I'll let 

 you have it for one-and-six, if you're sure really sure you 



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