“I will show you another picture, somewhat different from the others: it will be the last,” said the stranger.
The next scene represented the interior of a baker’s shop. The baker—a coarse-featured man, with a hard, unprepossessing aspect—was waiting on a woman thinly clad in garments more suitable for June than December. She was purchasing two loaves of bread and a few crackers. There was another customer waiting his turn. It was a gentleman, with a pleasant smile on his face.
“Make haste!” said the baker, rudely, to the woman, who was searching for her money to pay for her purchases. “I can’t stop all day; and here’s a gentleman that you keep waiting.”
“Oh! never mind me: I am in no hurry,” the gentleman said.
“I am afraid,” said the woman, in an alarmed tone, “that I have lost my money. I had it here in my pocket; but it is gone.”
“Then you may return the bread. I don’t sell for nothing.”
“Trust me for once, sir; I will pay you in a day or two; otherwise my children must go without food to-morrow.”
“Can’t help that. You shouldn’t have been so careless.”
The woman was about turning away, when the voice of the other customer arrested her steps.