“She said that, did she?” he found vague comfort in saying. “She said that?” “Yes, she did, Father. It was the very day before she died.” “Well, she never said anything she hadn't thought out,” he said in slow retrospection. “And she had a good head of her own. Eh, she was a wonderful woman, she was, for sticking to things. That was th' Lancashire in her. Lancashire folks knows their own minds.” “Mother knew hers,” said Ann. “And she always said you knew yours. Come and sit in your own chair, Father, and have your paper.” She had tided him past the worst currents without letting him slip into them. “I like folks that knows their own minds,” he said as he sat down and took his paper from her. “You know yours, Ann; and there's that Tembarom chap. He knows his. I've been noticing that chap.” There was a certain pleasure in using a tone of amiable patronage. “He's got a way with him that's worth money to him in business, if he only knew it.” “I don't think he knows he's got a way,” Little Ann said. “His way is just him.” “He just gets over people with it, like he got over me. I was ready to knock his head off first time he spoke to me. I was ready to knock anybody's head off that day. I'd just had that letter from Hadman. He made me sick wi' the way he pottered an' played the fool about the invention. He believed in it right enough, but he hadn't the courage of a mouse. He wasn't goin' to be the first one to risk his money. Him, with all he has! He's the very chap to be able to set it goin'. If I could have got some one else to put up brass, it'd have started him. It's want o' backbone, that's the matter wi' Hadman an' his lot.” “Some of these days some of them 're going to get their eyes open,” said Little Ann, “and then the others will be sorry. Mr. Tembarom says they'll fall over themselves to get in on the ground floor.” Hutchinson chuckled. “That's New York,” he said. “He's a rum chap. But he thinks a good bit of the invention. I've talked it over with him, because I've wanted to talk, and the one thing I've noticed about Tembarom is that he can keep his mouth shut.” “But he talks a good deal,” said Ann. “That's the best of it. You'd think he was telling all he knows, and he's not by a fat lot. He tells you what you'll like to hear, and he's not sly; but he can keep a shut mouth. That's Lancashire. Some folks can't do it even when they want to.” “His father came from England.” “That's where the lad's sense comes from. Perhaps he's Lancashire. He had a lot of good ideas about the way to get at Hadman.” A knock at the door broke in upon them. Mrs. Bowse presented herself, wearing a novel expression on her face. It was at once puzzled and not altogether disagreeably excited.