“What’s the matter, Toby?”

“If you please, ma’am,” said Toby looking this way and that, “the money won’t come right. John and me have counted it out again and again, ma’am, and cast up the sums a dozen times or more, but we cannot make head or tail of it.”

Mrs Brandy tutted and sighed and asked by how much they were out.

“Twenty-five guineas, ma’am.”

“Twenty-five guineas!” cried Mrs Brandy in horror. “Twenty-five guineas! How could we possibly have lost so much? Oh! I hope you are mistaken, Toby. Twenty-five guineas! I would not have supposed there to be so much money in the shop! Oh, Toby!” she cried, as another thought struck her. “We must have been robbed!”

“No, ma’am,” said Toby. “Beg your pardon, ma’am, but you mistake. I did not mean to say we are twenty-five guineas short. We are over, ma’am. By that amount.”

Mrs Brandy stared at him.

“Which you may see for yourself, ma’am,” said Toby, “if you will just come down to the shop,” and he held the door open for her with an anxious, pleading expression upon his face. So Mrs Brandy ran downstairs into the shop and Toby followed after her.

It was about nine o’clock on a moonless night. The shutters were all put up and John and Toby had extinguished the lamps. The shop ought to have been as dark as the inside of a tea-caddy, but instead it was filled with a soft, golden light which appeared to emanate from something golden which lay upon the counter-top.

A heap of shining guineas was lying there. Mrs Brandy picked up one of the coins and examined it. It was as if she held a ball of soft yellow light with a coin at the bottom of it. The light was odd. It made Mrs Brandy, John and Toby look quite unlike themselves: Mrs Brandy appeared proud and haughty, John looked sly and deceitful and Toby wore an expression of great ferocity. Needless to say, all of these were qualities quite foreign to their characters. But stranger still was the transformation that the light worked upon the dozens of small mahogany drawers that formed one wall of the shop. Upon other evenings the gilt lettering upon the drawers proclaimed the contents to be such things as: Mace (Blades), Mustard (Unhusked), Nutmegs, Ground Fennel, Bay Leaves, Pepper of Jamaica, Essence of Ginger, Caraway, Peppercorns and Vinegar and all the other stock of a fashionable and prosperous grocery business. But now the words appeared to read: Mercy (Deserved), Mercy (Undeserved), Nightmares, Good Fortune, Bad Fortune, Persecution by Families, Ingratitude of Children, Confusion, Perspicacity and Veracity. It was as well that none of them noticed this odd change. Mrs Brandy would have been most distressed by it had she known. She would not have had the least notion what to charge for these new commodities.

“Well,” said Mrs Brandy, “they must have come from somewhere. Has any one sent today to pay their bill?”