Joanna was assured that there was no cause for anxiety, sailing- ships being so uncertain in their coming; which assurance proved to be well grounded, for late one wet evening, about a month after the calculated time, the ship was announced as at hand, and presently the slip-slop step of Shadrach as the sailor sounded in the passage, and he entered.

The boys had gone out and had missed him, and Joanna was sitting alone.
As soon as the first emotion of reunion between the couple had passed, Jolliffe explained the delay as owing to a small speculative contract, which had produced good results.
'I was determined not to disappoint 'ee,' he said; 'and I think you'll own that I haven't!' With this he pulled out an enormous canvas bag, full and rotund as the money-bag of the giant whom Jack slew, untied it, and shook the contents out into her lap as she sat in her low chair by the fire.

A mass of sovereigns and guineas (there were guineas on the earth in those days) fell into her lap with a sudden thud, weighing down her gown to the floor.
'There!' said Shadrach complacently.

'I told 'ee, dear, I'd do it; and have I done it or no ?' Somehow her face, after the first excitement of possession, did not retain its glory.
'It is a lot of gold, indeed,' she said.

'And--is this _all_ ?' 'All?
Why, dear Joanna, do you know you can count to three hundred in that heap?
It is a fortune!' 'Yes--yes.