"
"Oh," said Rachel, "I only want a large tin of Singapore Delicious
Chunks, please."
But if she had announced her intention of spending a thousand pounds
in Ted Malkin's shop she would not have better pleased him. He
beamed. He desired the whole shop to hear that order, for it was the
vindication of honest, modest trading--of his father's methods and his
own. His father, himself, and about a couple of other tradesmen had
steadily fought the fight of the market-place against St. Luke's
Square in the day of its glory, and more recently against the
powerfully magnetic large shops at Hanbridge, and they had not been
defeated. As for Ted Malkin, he was now beyond doubt the "best"
provision-dealer and grocer in the town, and had drawn ahead even of
"Holl's" (as it was still called), the one good historic shop left in
Luke's Square. The onslaught of Wason had alarmed him, though he
had pretended to ignore it. But he was delectably reassured by
this heavenly incident of the representative of one of his most
distinguished customers coming into the shop and deliberately choosing
to buy preserved pineapple from him at 8-1/2d. when it could be got
thirty yards away for 7 1/2d. Rachel read his thoughts plainly.
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