Also there is a
covenant for the insurance of the said vessel, and a power of sale, and
some other provisions about access to trading books, etc., with which
you have, no doubt, a good acquaintance, Mr. Cheeseman."
That enterprising merchant, importer of commodities, and wholesale and
retail dealer was fond of assuring his numerous friends that "nothing
ever came amiss to him." But some of them now would have doubted about
this if they had watched his face as carefully as Caryl Carne was
watching it. Mr. Cheeseman could look a hundred people in the face, and
with great vigour too, when a small account was running. But the
sad, contemptuous, and piercing gaze--as if he were hardly worth
penetrating--and the twirl of the black tuft above the lip, and the firm
conviction on the broad white forehead that it was confronting a rogue
too common and shallow to be worth frowning at--all these, and the facts
that were under them, came amiss to the true James Cheeseman.
"I scarcely see how to take this," he said, being clever enough to
suppose that a dash of candour might sweeten the embroilment. "I will
not deny that I was under obligation to your highly respected
father, who was greatly beloved for his good-will to his neighbours.
'Cheeseman,' he used to say, 'I will stand by you. You are the only man
of enterprise in these here parts. Whatever you do is for the good of
Springhaven, which belonged to my family for centuries before those
new-fangled Darlings came.
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