"Finery!" repeated Fanny. "Father has got a watch."
"Yes, but your father's is for use, not to dangle round his neck like that glittering thing. You've got a clock in the kitchen at your place, haven't you?" said her mother.
"To be sure we have," said Fanny, with a toss of her head. "But I'm not always in the kitchen," she added.
"Well, my girl, I dare say we shall get over it but I do feel disappointed, for I wanted you to let me have all you could spare of your wages this month for Eliza."
"For Eliza!" repeated Fanny, changing colour a little. "Is she ill again, mother?" she asked.
"No; she is better—very well for her. But Mrs. Parsons from the Vicarage came to see me yesterday, and asked if Eliza could go with the nurse and children to the seaside for a month. Our Vicar thought she might help to look after the children on the sands, and that the change would do her good too."
"Oh, mother, how kind of the Vicar and Mrs. Parsons! And what a chance for Eliza! Of course you'll let her go!"
"How can I now?" And Mrs. Brown put her apron to her eyes, for she could not keep her tears back any longer. "I spent every penny I could scrape together to send you out tidy, never thinking I should want to do the same thing for Eliza yet awhile, or that you would go and throw away your first wages on rubbish like that watch."
Fanny looked confused and defiant. Certainly, if she had known the money was likely to be wanted for such a purpose as helping her delicate sister to go to the seaside, she would not have bought the watch; but she did not like it that her mother seemed to think she had a right to claim her first wages, and she muttered something about this just as Eliza came in from school.
"Has mother told you, Fanny?" she exclaimed, after hugging and kissing her sister.