In addition to the book
he insisted on carrying a small white parcel of hers which she had
not put into the reticule. They climbed the steps out of the covered
market and walked along the market-place together. And Rachel
unmistakably did find pleasure in being seen thus with the great and
powerful, if much criticized, Thomas Batchgrew, him to whom several
times, less than a year earlier, she had scathingly referred as
_that man_. His escort in the thoroughfare, and especially
his demeanour towards herself, gave her a standing which she could
otherwise scarcely have attained. Moreover, people might execrate him
in private, but that he had conquered the esteem of their secret souls
was well proved by their genuine eagerness to salute him as he walked
sniffing along. He counted himself one of the seven prides of the
district, and perhaps he was not far out.
"Come in a minute, lass," he said in a low, confidential voice,
as they reached his branch shop, just beyond Malkin's. "I'll--" He
paused.
A motor, apparently enormous, was buzzing motion-less in the wide
entry by the side of the shop. It very slowly moved forward, crossed
the footpath and half the street opposite the Town Hall, impeding a
tram-car, and then curved backward into a position by the kerbstone.
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