"And where shall I find you?"
"Oh, I will be at the Cure. I want to see Miss Barnard. Her room is in front, and I can keep a lookout for you."
When Eben had carefully done all his errands, he drove round to the front of the Cure. Flora did not keep him long before she came down with two large bundles in her hands.
"More work?" asked Eben.
"Yes, more work, and something else besides work. I took up a book while I was waiting in Miss Barnard's room, and she asked me if I was fond of reading, and when I said I was, she pulled down this great bundle of old magazines—The Sunday-at-Home, The Leisure Hour, and others—and gave them to me, saying that there was a great deal in them, and I might keep them as long as I liked."
"Good for her!" said Eben. "She must be a nice person, I am sure."
"She is, indeed. And that is not the best of it. You must know—though that is a great secret—that she is to be married this fall, if she is well enough. Her mother has come up to see her, and Mrs. Barnard is so pleased with what I have done, that she says she will have me make all the wedding cloth—all the under-clothes, that is—instead of getting them done in New York. So I am sure of as much work as I can do all summer. Isn't that finding a gold mine?"
"It is, indeed," said Eben. "We do have a great deal to be thankful for, and among other things that you learned to use the machine so well. But, Flora, what would Aunt Fletcher say to your working for money? You know the remarks she made about Miss Emily Willson's working for the fancy store."
"Oh yes; she said it might do here, but in town any one would lose caste directly who should do such a thing. Miss Barnard does not seem to think there is anything degrading in my sewing for her. She always seems glad to see me, and asks about you and mother—or mother and you, rather—not condescendingly, but as if she were really interested. She treats me as if she thought I was quite as good as herself."
"I have a notion that the Barnards are a notch above the Fletchers in the way of fashion, and so on," remarked Eben.