Mona bowed, and replaced the box on the shelf.
"You don't mean to say that is all you've got! Why, it is not even fresh. Some of it is half faded."
"Truly," said Mona quietly. "I suppose you will be able to get what you want elsewhere."
"I told you it was no use, Matilda, in a place like this," said the elder of the two, looking contemptuously round the shop. "Pa will be driving us in to St Rules in a day or two. There are some decent shops there."
"What is the use of that when I want it to-night? Just let me see the box again."
She took up the least impossible roll of ribbon and regarded it critically.
"You can't possibly take that, Matilda. Every shop-girl wears that shade."
Matilda nudged her sister violently, and they both strove to prevent a giggle from getting the better of their dignity. Fortunately, when they looked at Mona, she seemed to be quite unconscious of this little by-play. The younger was the first to recover herself.
"I will take two yards of that," she said, trying to make up for her momentary lapse by increased formality, and she threw half-a-sovereign on the counter, without inquiring the price.
Mona had just given her the parcel and the change, when Rachel came in full of obsequious interest, and inquiries about "your pa" and "your ma"; so Mona withdrew to the other side of the shop.