He shouldered the bag.
"Let me out the side way like any other servant," he said, as he bade them farewell.
"And now, little Primrose," cautioned her Aunt, "thou must keep guard over thy tongue as if with a steel chain, for thy cousin's sake."
"It will never be a traitor tongue," returned the maiden proudly.
Patty had been down in the kitchen helping with some ironing, and now she came up with an armful of stiff skirts. For many women on state occasions wore a big hoop, and others swelled out with starched petticoats.
"I have to go among the stores to find some things that have grown scarce as hen's teeth. And thou hast not been out these two days, Primrose. Thy gallants have deserted thee. What sayest thou to a little run in the brisk air. We shall not go in public places, madam, and she will be safe by my side."
"As she likes. There are plenty of pretty girls in town, perhaps better worth being looked at. And it is early yet."
Primrose enjoyed these small shopping expeditions. There were some very nice places kept by Friends who had been famous in merchandise a few years before, but stocks had sadly diminished and prices gone up. Patty's Yankee blood came to the fore in such times as these, and she had become rather a dread to clerks and shopmen. This part of it amused Primrose very much, as Patty was sure to make a good bargain.
"There seems nothing at all to buy now," she cried in disdain, finding some difficulty in getting what she wanted.
"There will be less yet unless the war ends presently," was the reply of the shopkeeper.