He said it was all my doing and Ellen's.
There was already a counter in the shop and a few fittings, so
that nothing now remained but to get some stock and set them out for
sale. Ernest said he could not begin better than by selling his
clerical wardrobe and his books, for though the shop was intended
especially for the sale of second-hand clothes, yet Ellen said there
was no reason why they should not sell a few books too; so a beginning
was to be made by selling the books he had had at school and college
at about one shilling a volume, taking them all round, and I have
heard him say that he learned more that proved of practical use to him
through stocking his books on a bench in front of his shop and selling
them, than he had done from all the years of study which he had
bestowed upon their contents.
For the enquiries that were made of him, whether he had such and
such a book, taught him what he could sell and what he could not;
how much he could get for this, and how much for that. Having made
ever such a little beginning with books, he took to attending book
sales as well as clothes sales, and ere long this branch of his
business became no less important than the tailoring, and would, I
have no doubt, have been the one which he would have settled down to
exclusively, if he had been called upon to remain a tradesman; but
this is anticipating.
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