MILDRED'S BARGAIN.
A Story for Girls.
BY MRS. JOHN LILLIE.
Chapter III.
Milly's heart gave a bound, and then seemed to stand still.
"Here I am," said the woman, smiling. "I've called to make you even a better offer. You pay me fifty cents a week for that dress, and any week you can't pay, why, you can return the silk, provided it's decently clean, and I'll allow you a couple o' dollars, when I take it back, for the making. Come, now, I don't mind throwing in the linings, and I won't bother you for the first fortnight."
Now, as you have seen, Milly had gone through just the process of reasoning to make the peddler's words sound most alluring. The woman read in the young girl's face an instant's doubt followed by decision, and as quickly as possible she produced from her bag the roll of gray silk. Mildred never quite remembered how she made that purchase, or rather that bargain, for honorable purchase it certainly was not. The shining silk and the linings were put into her hands, and before she knew it she had signed a paper, a copy of which the peddler gave her. The transaction only occupied a few moments. Milly tucked the silk away in the room devoted to the bonnets and cloaks and luncheons of the sales-women, and was in her place before she fully realized that her longing of the day previous was granted. The morning passed heavily, and she was well pleased when it came her turn to take thirty minutes for lunch. But on entering the cloak-room her dismay was unbounded. Three or four of the shop-girls were clustered about Mildred's precious parcel, and a chorus of voices greeted her entrance.
"Look here, Miss Lee. Whose do you suppose this is?"
"Well, isn't this lovely?"
"Could any one have stolen it?"
"No," said Mildred, quietly, yet not without a flush on her cheeks. "It is mine. The—person I bought it of brought it here to me to-day."
THE GIRLS DISCOVER MILDRED'S PURCHASE.
"Yours!" exclaimed Jenny Martin, who had thrown one end of the silk over her shoulder. "Well, that is pretty good on five dollars a week!"
Mildred's face burned, but something in Jenny's rude words smote her conscience, and she tried to look good-humored, while Jenny admired herself a moment in the cracked glass, the other girls eying her as well as Mildred with some new respect.
Jenny tossed the silk from her shoulders with a little sniff, and Mildred felt glad enough to put it away, and eat a hasty lunch. She was doubly glad, when her working hours were over, to hurry home, carrying her new treasure, which she had resolved not to show her mother until the night of the party. But a surprise awaited her on her return to the cottage. Mrs. Lee had received an invitation from a cousin in Boston to spend a fortnight with his family, and she had already arranged with her few pupils to avail herself of this unlooked-for holiday.
All was excitement and preparation. Will, the second boy, was to go with his mother, and instead of tea on the cozy little table there were odds and ends of tapes, buttons, and threads, half-worn garments, and one or two new things, while Debby, the one servant, and Mrs. Lee were both stitching as if for a wager. They looked up with flushed faces to greet Milly.
"Oh, my dear," said the mother, after explaining matters, "do sit down and help; we are to be off to-morrow morning."
Milly saw she could not hope for a moment to sew on the new dress until after her mother and Will were gone, and so she entered with an earnest good-will into assisting them, and was genuinely pleased by their prospects of enjoyment. The next few days flew by. Once the children were safely in bed Mildred would draw forth her work, and so by dint of hard labor the dress was finished Monday evening. She made her toilet rather nervously when Tuesday night came. What between her hurry after getting home, and her anxiety to conceal her dress from Debby and her little sister Margaret, Mildred found it difficult to enjoy the "first wear" of the gray silk; but certainly, she thought, as she surveyed her work in her mirror, it was a success. It fitted admirably, and she had had the good taste to make it simply as became a young girl only sixteen, though it in no way became a girl working hard for twenty dollars a month. She took good care to envelop herself completely in a water-proof cloak before Debby and little Kate saw her, and thus equipped she started off under her brother Joe's escort for the big house in Lane Street.