“Could you let me look at it?”
“And welcome, miss,” said he, and opened the case.
“Oh, goodness! how beautiful!” exclaimed Cecilia.
It was a figure of Flora, crowned with roses, and carrying a basket of flowers in her hand. Cecilia contemplated it with delight. “How I should like to give this to Louisa!” said she to herself; and, at last, breaking silence, “Did you promise it to the old lady?”
“Oh, no, miss, I didn’t promise it—she never saw it; and if so be that you’d like to take it, I’d make no more words about it.”
“And how much does it cost?”
“Why, miss, as to that, I’ll let you have it for half-a-guinea.”
Cecilia immediately produced the box in which she kept her treasure, and, emptying it upon the table, she began to count the shillings. Alas! there were but six shillings. “How provoking!” said she; “then I can’t have it. Where’s the mandarin? Oh, I have it,” said she, taking it up, and looking at it with the utmost disgust. “Is this the same that I had before?”
“Yes, miss, the very same,” replied the peddler, who, during this time, had been examining the little box out of which Cecilia had taken her money—it was of silver. “Why, ma’am,” said he, “since you’ve taken such a fancy to the piece, if you’ve a mind to make up the remainder of the money, I will take this here little box, if you care to part with it.”
Now this box was a keepsake from Leonora to Cecilia. “No,” said Cecilia hastily, blushing a little, and stretching out her hand to receive it.