Behind the counter a girl of seventeen was serving a thin-faced woman with portions of a cheese which she was holding down with her strong, dirty hand, while she sawed it with a knife.

On the counter, next the cheese, sat a quiet-looking cat.
They all glanced round at the two young people, who stood and waited.
"Finish what you're at," said Martin, "then give me three pennyworth of bull's-eyes." The girl, with a violent effort, finished severing the cheese.

The thin-faced woman took it, and, coughing above it, went away.

The girl, who could not take her eyes off Thyme, now served them with three pennyworth of bull's-eyes, which she took out with her fingers, for they had stuck.

Putting them in a screw of newspaper, she handed them to Martin.