"Where did you meet him? In the city?"
"I had the pleasure of purchasing a pair of gloves from the store where Miss Howard is employed. I have tried on the gloves since," he added, glancing archly in her blushing face, "and I assure you they fit extremely well."
Marion threw back her head and laughed heartily, and as mirth is more contagious than any fever, all present joined in the mirth, though there were loud calls for an explanation.
"It is only," she said, "that I called on my way from the depot to see Mary Falkner, and as her mother was very busy, I offered to sit by Mary's bed while she finished her washing. Some one came into the shop. Mrs. Falkner was in the clothes-yard, and did not hear, and I at last went forward, supposing, of course, that I should be called on for a spool of thread or a paper of pins.
"I am sorry, sir, that I could not serve you better, but under the circumstances I did as well as I knew how. But I am forgetting my errand to you. I charged you too much for the gloves, and Mrs. Falkner trusted me with the change to be returned, which I now make over to you"; passing twenty-five cents in silver across the table.
"I shall take an early opportunity to show my appreciation of Mrs. Falkner's fair dealing," responded Mr. Angus, smiling, as he put the silver in his pocket. But with an instant change in his tone, "Who is this Mary Falkner? Does she belong to my charge?"
"Yes, sir; she is a poor cripple; so patient and cheerful, that it is a lesson to see her. It almost brings tears to my eyes to hear her talk of God's mercy to her, and how He inclines the hearts of people to supply her wants. Why, even the coming of customers to the store for a few pennies' worth of thread is a subject for thankfulness."
"She is, indeed, to be envied. I regret that I have not seen her. Such calls are needed by a pastor for his own good."
Marion's beaming face bore witness to her approbation of this sentiment, as she remarked,—
"There is no place in the parish where a visit from you would be more prized than in poor Mary's chamber."