“And will you buy them, papa?”
“No, I cannot indulge myself,” said her father, “in buying them now. I must make amends,” said he, laughing, “for my carelessness; and as I threw away a guinea to-day, I must endeavour to save sixpence at least?”
“Ah, the guinea that you threw by mistake into the little girl’s hat as we were coming up Chalk Hill. Mamma, I wonder that the little girl did not take notice of its being a guinea, and that she did not run after the chaise to give it back again. I should think, if she had been an honest girl, she would have returned it.”
“Miss!—ma’am!—sir!” said the basket-woman, “if it would not be impertinent, may I speak a word? A little boy and girl have just been here inquiring for a gentleman who gave them a guinea instead of a halfpenny by mistake; and not five minutes ago I saw the boy give the guinea to a gentleman’s servant, who is there without, and who said his master desired it should be returned to him.”
“There must be some mistake, or some trick in this,” said the gentleman. “Are the children gone? I must see them—send after them.”
“I’ll go for them myself,” said the good natured basket-woman; “I bid them wait in the street yonder, for my mind misgave me that the man who spoke so short to them was a cheat, with his larks and his claret.”
Paul and Anne were speedily summoned, and brought back by their friend the basket-woman; and Anne, the moment she saw the gentleman, knew that he was the very person who smiled upon her, who admired her brother’s scotcher, and who threw a handful of halfpence into the hat; but she could not be certain, she said, that she received the guinea from him; she only thought it most likely that she did.
“But I can be certain whether the guinea you returned be mine or no,” said the gentleman. “I marked the guinea; it was a light one; the only guinea I had, which I put into my waistcoat pocket this morning.” He rang the bell, and desired the waiter to let the gentleman who was in the room opposite to him know that he wished to see him.
“The gentleman in the white parlour, sir, do you mean?”
“I mean the master of the servant who received a guinea from this child.”