The Collector pulled himself up and looked confused.
"It was so small a thing I asked," said she, almost to herself, and
with a heart-rending break in her voice, "so small a test!" And with
a sigh she half-turned to go.
The Collector's hand arrested her.
"Do you mean--?"
She looked at him with reproach in her eyes. "Let me pass," said
she, and seeing the conflict between love and duty on his face, "So
small a test!"
"Damn the tea!" said Mr. Moggridge.
"I am feeling so faint," said Mrs. Goodwyn-Sandys.
"Let me lead you up to the fresh air."
"No; go and open the tea."
"I am not going to open it."
"Do!"
"I won't. Here, Sam," he called to one of the minions, "put down
that chisel and weigh the chest at once. You needn't open it.
Come, don't stand staring, but look alive. I know what's inside.
Are you satisfied?" he added, bending over her.
"It frightened me so," she answered, looking up with swimming eyes.
"And I thought--I was planning it so nicely. Take me up on deck,
please."
"Come, be careful o' that chest," said Captain Uriah T. Potter to the
minions, as they moved it up to be weighed.
"Heaviest tea that iver _I_ handled," groaned the first minion.
"All the more duty for you sharks. O' course it's heavy, being
compressed: an' strong, too.
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