“Two cents for your thoughts,” said Mr. Eaton, smiling to see her apparent forgetfulness.
“I wasn’t thinking of any thing particular,” said Marion, starting from her reverie.
“Were you not? There was an intentness about you which gave me the impression that you were thinking out some problem.”
“I don’t know what I said that for. I was thinking of something particular; I was thinking of all the days of my life till Mrs. Abbott brought me to Coventry.”
“I should say that was a pretty long think for such a short time.”
“But, Mr. Eaton, I used to wipe dishes just as you can see those girls in there. I did it for hours every day. I think I was too ashamed for a minute to tell you that when you asked me what I was thinking of.”
Honest Marion colored as she made this confession, which Mr. Eaton took very equably, in some way giving the impression by his manner that he considered washing and wiping dishes a very natural and every-day affair.
But as they were driving home over the snow, which sparkled like diamonds under the morning sun, but took a warm, rosy tint in the sunset light, Mr. Eaton told Marion a little Persian story which showed he had been thinking of the matter.
“A king sent one of his ministers one day to carry jewels to a queen he delighted to honor. When the proud trust was accomplished the messenger walked among the courtiers with lifted head and lofty bearing, and every one strove to be noticed by a man so honored and trusted. A few days after the king sent him to clean with his own hands the steps of the market-place, where dogs and beggar-children scrambled and fought for the refuse that was thrown out, and where the long, undisturbed accumulation of dirt had made that entrance hideous. When his work was ended the man came back from the uncongenial task with as proud a step, as lofty a carriage, as serene an eye as when he returned from his errand of trust and honor. Of the sneers and jeers of the courtiers at his abasement, and their laughter at the stains and soil upon his white, gold-wrought robes, he seemed unconscious. At the king’s feet he knelt, as he had knelt the day before, and said, ‘What thou didst give me to do, my king, I did as I could.’
“‘And which service was most pleasing to thee?’ asked the king.