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Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief by James Fenimore Cooper
page 34 of 192 (17%)
inapplicable to her present appearance. It might be better to say that,
relieved by a faultless, even a fastidious neatness and grace, there was
an air of severe, perhaps of pinched economy in her present attire. This
it was that had prevented our mistress from showing her fabrics as fine
as we, on the first demand. Still I thought there was a slight flush on the
cheek of the poor girl, and a faint smile on her features, as she instantly
recognized us for old acquaintances. For one, I own I was delighted at
finding her soft fingers again brushing over my own exquisite surface,
feeling as if one had been expressly designed for the other. Then
Adrienne hesitated; she appeared desirous of speaking, and yet
abashed. Her color went and came, until a deep rosy blush settled on
each cheek, and her tongue found utterance.

"Would it suit you, madame," she asked, as if dreading a repulse, "to
part with one of these?"

"Your pardon, mademoiselle; handkerchiefs of this quality are seldom
sold singly."

"I feared as much--and yet I have occasion for only ONE. It is to be
worked--if it--"

The words came slowly, and they were spoken with difficulty. At that
last uttered, the sound of the sweet girl's voice died entirely away. I fear
it was the dullness of trade, rather than any considerations of
benevolence, that induced our mistress to depart from her rule.

"The price of each handkerchief is five and twenty francs,
mademoiselle--" she had offered the day before to sell us to the wife of
one of the richest agents de change in Paris, at a napoleon a piece--"the
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