I don't want to
wear it any longer. The fact is, Joanna has thrown me--However, I
needn't go into that." He passed it back to me.
"I am afraid I can't take it," he said.
"Why not? I managed to."
However, I had to give him one without a hole before he would let
me out of his shop. Next time I was more thoughtful. I handed
three to the cashier at my restaurant in payment of lunch, and
the ventilated one was in the middle. He saw the joke of it just
as I was escaping down the stairs.
"Hi!" he said, "this shilling has a hole in it."
I went back and looked at it. Sure enough it had.
"Well, that's funny," I said. "Did you drop it, or what?"
He handed the keepsake back to me. He also had something of
reproach in his eye.
"Thanks, very much," I said. "I wouldn't have lost it for worlds;
Emily--But I mustn't bore you with the story. Good day to you."
And I gave him a more solid coin and went.
Well, that's how we are at present. A more unscrupulous person
than myself would have palmed it off long ago. He would have told
himself with hateful casuistry that the coin was none the worse
for the air-hole in it, and that, if everybody who came into
possession of it pressed it on to the next man, nobody would be
injured by its circulation. But I cannot argue like this. It
pleases me to give my shilling a run with the others sometimes. I
like to put it down on a counter with one or two more, preferably
in the middle of them where the draught cannot blow through it;
but I should indeed be surprised--I mean sorry--if it did not
come back to me at once.
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