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CHAPTER III ALL INTO GOLD PASCO PEPPERILL was a man slow, heavy, and apparently phlegmatic, and he was married to a woman full of energy, and excitable. Pasco had inherited Coombe Cellars from his father; he had been looked upon as the greatest catch among the young men of the neighbourhood. It was expected that he would marry well. He had married well, but not exactly in the manner anticipated. Coombe Cellars was a centre of many activities; it was a sort of inn at all events a place to which water parties came to picnic; it was a farm and a place of merchandise. Pasco had chosen as his wife Zerah Quarm, a publican's daughter, with, indeed, a small sum of money of her own, but with what was to him of far more advantage, a clear, organising head. She was a scrupulously tidy woman, a woman who did everything by system, who had her own interest or that of the house ever in view, and would never waste a farthing. Had the threads of the business been placed in Zerah's hands, she would have managed all, made money in every department, and kept the affairs of each to itself in her own orderly brain. But Pepperill did not trust her with the management of his wool, coal, grain, straw and hay business. " Feed the pigs, keep poultry, attend to the guests, make tea, boil cockles that's what you are here for, Zerah," said Pepperill; "all the rest is my affair, and with that you do not meddle." The pigs became fat, the poultry laid eggs, visitors came in quantities; Zerah's rashers, tea, cockles were relished and were paid for. Zerah had always a profit to show for her small outlay and much labour. She resented that she was not allowed an insight into her husband's business; he kept his booksto himself, and she mistrusted his ability to balance his accounts. When she disc...
