Kitty Mastick.
"How very imprudent in Kitty to come out so early!" observed Delia. "I wonder if Mrs. Pomeroy knows it?"
"If it were any one else, I should think she had gone without permission," said Emily. "But, hurry Delia, we have no time to lose."
Their plan was perfectly successful. Miss Sampson kept them only a few minutes, and they almost ran down to the shops, happy at meeting no one by the way. Mr. Barton's face looked unpromising as they entered, but relaxed when Emily took out her purse.
"So you have come to pay the bill!" said he.
"Yes," replied Delia. "You need not have been so dreadful afraid of being cheated, Mr. Barton."
"Well, Miss Mason, when you have been in the fancy business as long as I have, you may learn to be suspicious too," returned Mr. Barton, making change with his usual deliberation. "You see it is an irregular thing for me to allow any of Mrs. Pomeroy's young ladies to make a bill at all, and more than once it has happened that a young lady has gone home for the holidays, promising to pay me when she came back, and that has been the last I have ever heard of it. However, all's well that ends well. There is your bill receipted, Miss, and what goods shall I show this morning?"
"Nothing!" replied Emily, who felt at this moment as though no shop would ever offer any temptations to her again. "Come, Delia, you know we have another errand."
"There is something wrong about that girl," said the shrewd old man, as he watched them out of the shop. "I wonder where she got the money to pay me, for I am sure she did not have it last night. However, that is no business of mine."