The Board Has No Mouth

At Greywater Stair the Mara boats came in with the board still chalked at four and a half drops a span, and Corin Haddow would not let his runners shout it. A traveller asked him why the price had crept up, and he said the board had no mouth, so the price could speak for itself. Hallam Cubitt, sculling in from the far bank, laughed and said that was the saying now. By dusk the whole stair was repeating it.