CHAPTER XXXII.
TOTTY'S LUCK 'The Little Shop with the Large Heart' had suffered a grave loss: Miss Totty Nancarrow had withdrawn her custom from it.
Totty had patronised Mrs.Bower very steadily for some five years.

It was true that the large-hearted shop put a rather large price on certain things, in comparison with what they _could_ be bought for in Lambeth.

If you wanted a pot of marmalade, for instance, Mrs.Bower sold it for sixpence, whereas it was notoriously purchasable for fivepence-halfpenny at grocers in Lambeth Walk.

If you went for a quarter of a pound of butter, you had no choice of quality, and paid fourpence three farthings, whilst in Lambeth Walk you obtained a better article for the even fourpence.

Totty, however, had a principle that one ought to deal rather with acquaintances than with strangers, and another principle that it was better to pay a halfpenny more for an article to be had by crossing the street than a halfpenny less and go a whole street's length for it.