"Beautiful!" said I, as I stood looking at it. Admiration quickly
changed into the desire for possession; and so I stepped in to ask
the price. It was just two dollars.

"Cheap enough," thought I. And this very cheapness was a further
temptation.

So I turned out the contents of my pockets, counted them over, and
found the amount to be two dollars and a quarter.

"I guess I'll take it," said I, laying the money on the shopkeeper's
counter.

"I'd better have paid Mrs. Blake." This thought crossed my mind, an
hour afterwards, by which time the little ornament had lost its
power of pleasing. "So much would at least have been saved."

I was leaving the table, after tea, on the evening that followed,
when the waiter said to me,

"Mrs. Blake is at the door, and wishes to see you."

I felt a little worried at hearing this; for I had no change in my
pockets, and the poor washerwoman had, of course, come for her
money.

"She's in a great hurry," I muttered to myself, as I descended to
the door.

"You'll have to wait until you bring home my clothes next week, Mrs.