What, now? For pity’s sake!
Well, all right, five minutes. As long as no customer
comes in – and they do, even on wet days like this one. Particularly the
visitors staying across the Dee – they come into the village for a walk, admire
the church, consider the green, remark on the pleasing regularity of the
streets, and then they come in here and who knows what they might buy?
I aim to please as many of them as I can, of course.
And with two shop boys and another two working with the cart I can have several
attended to at once, deliveries made all about the three parishes, and even
send for special goods from Aberdeen if a customer has a particular taste. Our
range benefits from the convenience of the commutation road, the speed of the
coaches and all other forms of communication: every day fresh stock arrives
from near and far, whether food and drink – the freshest eggs unless you have
your own hens - cloth and haberdashery, or hardware and fancy goods. See these?
These came all the way from Christiania. They make the very best there and so
that is what we stock, bringing it straight from the harbour at Aberdeen or
Peterhead.
Local use? Of course the local people come in here all
the time: we are not dependent on fleeting visitors. No, we have a long-standing
reputation for supplying meat and dairy produce, spirits and wines, teas and
coffees … If you wish to purchase seed, or farming tools – all made locally and
perfect for our local conditions, of course – then you may pass through the
alley and view all our farming and gardening goods there.
My father had this place before me. He was not an
ambitious man, but he didn’t much mind when I began to put some of my ideas
into practice before he had quite given the place up. His prices were sometimes
unrealistic, and he could be over-generous with people who hadn’t the means to
hand. You’re not doing your customer any favours if you encourage them to spend
beyond their means: if there’s something they can’t pay for, likely they don’t
need it anyway. I expect my accounts to be met promptly at the end of each
month, with no exceptions. A man cannot meet his obligations to his family if
he does not have a reliable income, and I promised my Bella when I offered her
marriage that she should want for nothing. And I have kept that promise. A new
and elegant house, the latest fashions, the best foods, all provided for her.
No woman deserves it more.
Ah, my Bella – still the most beautiful woman in the
three parishes. My poor dear Bella. She has borne me four children – all up and
grown now, the daughters married to good and prosperous men – but I worry about
her health. There is a melancholy about her. Of course she has had tragedy in
her life, but I had hoped that I had helped her through that, and we have been,
I believe, very happy in our marriage and our life together. She keeps busy,
with church work and charitable work – she was brought up more gently than a
merchant’s wife and her grace becomes her very well – and she is very friendly
with the Misses Strong, with Mrs. Kynoch in particular, and now with Mrs.
Napier, the doctor’s wife, all of which help her to occupy her mind and her
hands, so the melancholy perplexes me. I had thought of asking Dr. Napier for
his thoughts on the matter but – but – but what? He is too close, perhaps? He
worked with Dr. Durward, my late friend. He is very young, and he is just a
village physician. I think about taking my dear wife to Edinburgh, perhaps, to
see one of the best physicians, perhaps one who makes a particular study of melancholy.
One of my daughters has married an Edinburgh doctor, so perhaps he could
recommend someone. But would my dear Bella consent to go and be examined? I am
not sure, and I fear causing her to withdraw even further if she thought I were
pressing her into something she did not quite like.
There, I have said more than I intended to – enough!
There’s a watery sun coming out, I’m sure of it, and it will not be long now
until we are busy again. Cuthbert, go and dry off the window! Al, have the mop
ready for the floor – the ladies will not like mud on their hems. Now, if you
have nothing more on which to waste my time, can I interest you in this very
fine tawny velvet, straight from Paris? It would be the perfect cloth for a
snug spencer for the winter – ideal here in the colder weather. And the price
is surprisingly reasonable!
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