shillings, and I'll let you have it for ten, if you'll take
it."

"No, it is too light and too coarse," said Ellen; "Mamma
wouldn't like it."

"Let me see," said he, seizing her pattern, and pretending to
compare it; "it's quite as fine as this, if that's all you
want."

"Could you," said Ellen, timidly, "give me a little bit of
this gray to show Mamma!"

"Oh, no!" said he, impatiently tossing over the cloths and
throwing Ellen's pattern on the floor; "we can't cut up our
goods; if people don't choose to buy of us, they may go
somewhere else; and if you cannot decide upon anything, I must
go and attend to those that can. I can't wait here all day."

"What's the matter, Saunders?" said one of his brother clerks,
passing him.

"Why, I've been here this half hour showing cloths to a child
that doesn't know merino from a sheep's back," said he,
laughing. And, some other customers coming up at the moment,
he was as good as his word, and left Ellen, to attend to them.

Ellen stood a moment stock still, just where he had left her,
struggling with her feelings of mortification; she could not
endure to let them be seen. Her face was on fire; her head was