"I shan't forget—I really shan't," said the girl.
"Well, dear, I've said all I could to dissuade you; but if you will come, I suppose you must," said Miss Anne.
"It's just as you say—a fancy," answered Margaret; "but I feel that if I were disappointed I should die."
I think, and Miss Sheckleton thought so too, that this pretty girl was very much excited that day, and could not endure the terrible stillness of Malory. Uncertainty, suspense, enforced absence from the person who loved her best in the world, and who yet is very near; dangers and hopes, quite new—no wonder if all these incidents of her situation did excite her.
It was near a week since the elder lady had appeared in the streets and shops of Cardyllian. Between the banks of the old sylvan road she and her mysterious companion walked in silence into steep Church Street, and down that quaint quarter of the town presenting houses of all dates from three centuries ago, and by the church, still older, down into Castle Street, in which, as we know, stands the shop of Jones, the draper. Empty of customers was this well-garnished shop when the two ladies of Malory entered it; and Mrs. Jones raised her broad, bland, spectacled face, with a smile and a word of greeting to Miss Anne Sheckleton, and an invitation to both ladies to "be seated," and her usual inquiry, as she leaned over the counter, "And what will you be pleased to want?" and the order, "John, get down the gray linseys—not them—those over yonder—yes, sure, you'd like to see the best—I know you would."
So some little time was spent over the linseys, and then,—
"You're to measure thirteen yards, John, for Miss Anne Sheckleton, and send it over, with trimmin's and linin's, to Miss Pritchard. Miss Anne Sheckleton will speak to Miss Pritchard about the trimmin's herself."
Then Mrs. Jones observed,—
"What a day this has been—hasn't it, miss? And such weather, altogether, I really don't remember in Cardyllian, I think ever."
"Yes, charming weather," acquiesced Miss Sheckleton; and just then two ladies came in and bought some velvet ribbon, which caused an interruption.