She stooped and kissed Mattie, whose arms closed round her for a minute with a loving clasp.
"I'm better now," said Mattie, "it was fancy, perhaps, a fancy that you, too, were going further away from me—perhaps thinking ill of me. For you were cold and distant when you came here first to-night."
"No, no."
"Well, that was my fancy, too, it's very likely. I'll say good night now, for it's getting late."
"Good night, then."
At the door she paused and returned.
"Mattie, put on your bonnet and come with me to the end of the street where the omnibus passes. I'm nervous to-night—I don't care to walk alone about these streets again."
"Let me call Mr. Sid——"
"No, no; you—not him!" she interrupted.
"I never leave the shop, Miss Harriet; it's my trust, and your father would not like it. Shall Ann——"