“Come, now, get into the carriage, and we’ll talk over affairs as we ride along,” said the good-hearted woman, whose desire to have Eva with her had grown into a passion. “I’ve got Carter’s check for the bracelet, which is gorgeous, but I want your opinion. I wish Miss Ruthy here could go too; but she shall see it when we come back. Come, dear, step about lively, or we shall have Battles sulking again.”
As Eva went to get her bonnet, two important events happened. The notice of foreclosure was put in her hand by a strange young man, whose ring at the bell had drawn her to the front door, and while she was wondering what it could mean, the postman came into the yard with a letter from the establishment in which her duties lay. This letter curtly dismissed her from the situation, which was forfeited, the proprietor said, by her impertinence to Miss Spicer, a young lady who had been a most valuable customer, and had personally entered a complaint against her.
Carrying the two documents in her hand, Eva went back to the parlor with tears in her eyes and a throb of bitter pain at her heart.
“Dear me, how white you look! What is the matter?” questioned Mrs. Carter, lifting herself from the easy-chair, and laying her hand on Eva’s arm. “What is there in them papers that makes you shiver so?”
Eva turned her heavy eyes upon the kind-hearted questioner.
“The letter is for me,” she said. “I’ve lost my place.”
“Lost your place? Well, I’m glad of it!”
“That is nothing. Other establishments exist; but this—this cruel slip of paper is terrible. I think—I fear it will turn us all out of doors! Oh, my poor mother! How will she bear it? After all that has been put upon her, I would rather place a serpent in her hand than this.”
“Let me look at it before you do that,” said Mrs. Carter, resolutely. “I understand these things better than any of you.”
Without waiting for a reply, she took the paper, and read it with an eager, cheerful look, which went to Eva’s heart. “It is easy,” she thought, “for the rich to look on such things as trifles; but for us! She cannot understand how terrible it is for us!”