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you’ve got to do. I’ll do all the rest.
    ‘Well,’ she said at last. ‘Happen there’ll be no harm in it.’
    He started work as soon she left. By the end of the afternoon the shop was transformed. There were shelves in both windows to hold the rolls of cloth and long swathes of the boldest designs and the prettiest colourswere draped over the chairs he’d purloined from the kitchen, brocades and broadcloth in one window and cotton prints in the other. Better than that, he’d gathered a crowd as he worked and when they smiled and nodded at him through the glass, he’d held up the cloth for their inspection . So much for people never look in t’windows , he thought, as his happy audience gazed and talked. If they walk into the shop too, I’ll have made my point.
    His first customers came in half an hour later, three very well dressed ladies in splendid bonnets, a mother and her daughters who’d come to see the new cottons. They bought three dress lengths, which he wrapped with a ribbon and a flourish, and departed well pleased with him and themselves.
    ‘Well, I never,’ Lizzie said when they’d gone. ‘Who’d ha’ thought it?’
    ‘This is just the start,’ he told her happily. ‘You wait and see.’
    Two days later he bought two curtain poles, gave the chairs back to Mrs Norridge and changed the window ready for the Saturday trade. He was charged with energy and full of ideas. If he went about things the right way he could get himself a new suit of clothes. Then he could have some visiting cards printed, which would put that snooty butler in his place, and go visiting his rich uncle. He meant to cultivate that worthy gentleman, now that he knew how rich he was, and he thought he could see the right way to do it. All he needed was the right moment.
    It didn’t come for nearly a month but it was worth waiting for. Mrs Bell walked into the shop after work on his fourth Saturday and actually sought him out. She had an official-looking paper in her hand and was smiling at him. Well, there’s a wonder!
    ‘If you will – um – just step into t’back parlour,’ she said, ‘I have your – um – articles for you to sign.’
    He’d forgotten the apprenticeship. ‘Yes, ma’am,’ he said and smiled back.
    The paper was spread out on the parlour table and held in position with a floral paperweight. He did as he was told and read it thoroughly. Articles for an apprenticeship with Nicholson and Bell Quality Drapers to the trade of draper to last seven years from the date of signature. I shall be of age afore this is served, he thought as he signed, but it was good to know that he’d passed muster. He watched as Mrs Bell added her signature. Now, he thought, for the next thing.
    ‘One of your customers has given me an idea, Mrs Bell,’ he said.
    ‘Oh yes,’ she said. She was still smiling. ‘What – um – customer was that?’
    ‘Mr Ramsbottom,’ he told her. ‘He was thinking of buying a length for a new jacket and he said what he really needed was to see how ’twouldmake up.’ It wasn’t strictly true. What had really happened was that Mr Ramsbottom had discussed the cloth and it was George who had wondered aloud if it might be helpful to Mr Ramsbottom if he could see it made up. But there was no need for her to know all that. It was much too complicated.
    ‘We’re not tailors,’ she said and now her face was stern again.
    ‘No indeed, ma’am,’ he agreed. ‘We’re not. But it gave me an idea. How would it be if I were to buy a length of one of our most popular lines and have it made up – at my own expense naturally – and then we could put it in t’window as part of the display, so to speak. I would need it on Sundays to wear to church and when I go to visit my uncle.’ And he looked a question at her and waited.
    She was so flabbergasted she didn’t know what to say. She certainly wasn’t going to let him have his own way. That would do him no good at all. ‘Well, as to