"Sure, if you are sorry, there is no more to be said," said the kind-hearted old woman. "We mustn't expect gray heads on young shoulders. What have you got there?"
Nelly displayed all her treasures, her new book, her toilet-articles (the like of which granny had never beheld before), and, finally, her shuttle and thread, describing with great animation the nice lady and the pretty shop, and explaining all her grand prospects. The old woman listened attentively, and looked at Nelly's work with great interest.
"Sure, dear, I could have showed you that," said she. "I learned it when I was a girl; but we called it knitting, then. I used to know a many pretty patterns."
"Oh, granny, can't you remember some of them?" cried Nelly.
"May-be so, if I tried; but now here is your dinner, dear, and after that we will see."
"But I said I would mend my frock first. Miss Powell said I must look neat and nice when I came to the store; and I don't want to be called a ragamuffin again."
"And who was it called you a ragamuffin, dear?"
"A lady who was buying something in the shop; and, granny, you know I am ragged," said Nelly, surveying her frock. "There is no use in denying it."
"And what business had they to cast it up to you, and you the grand-daughter of Lord Glengall?" said Mrs. Ryan, who was apt now and then to forget the exact degree of her relationship to his lordship. "It is fine times, indeed, for them tradesfolk to be looking down upon you! Not that I'm saying a word against them ladies in the shop that taught ye the work," she added, hastily. "Of course, things is different here and in the old country. But nobody shall call you a ragamuffin again, dear!" And the old woman went on muttering and murmuring in Irish, as she was apt to do when excited. Nelly did not often pay much attention to these soliloquies, and, having finished her dinner and washed up the few dishes, she set herself seriously about mending her frock, while Mrs. Ryan, still murmuring to herself, made herself ready to go out.
"Where are you going, granny?" asked Nelly.