This he sealed in wax and stamped with his crest; and this was duly delivered by Todd--and so the painful incident had come to an end.
The dogs disposed of, there still remained to him another issue to meet--the wages he owed Jemima.

Although she had not allowed the subject to pass her lips--not even to Todd--St.George knew that she needed the money--she being a free woman and her earnings her own--not a master's.
He had twice before determined to set aside enough money from former cash receipts to liquidate Jemima's debt--once from the proceeds of Gadgem's gun and again from what Floyd paid him for the dogs--but Todd had insisted with such vehemence that he needed it for the marketing, that he had let it go over.
The one remaining object of real value was the famous loving-cup.

With this turned into money he would be able to pay Jemima in full.

For days he debated the matter with himself, putting the question in a dozen different lights: it was not really HIS cup, but belonged to the family, he being only its custodian; it would reflect on his personal honor if he traded so distinguished a gift--one marking the esteem in which his dead father had been held, etc.

Then the round, good-natured face and bent figure of his old stand-by and comfort--who had worked for him and for his father almost all her life--rose before him, she bending over her tubs earning the bread to keep her alive, and with this picture in his mind all his fine-spun theories vanished into thin air.