He knew well enough, if he could get it out in season, he could easily sell three times that number for it was a wonderfully unique and attractive affair.
"More than that," he continued, "if you are pleased to accept my offer, I should like to engage you to prepare two or three designs of a similar character for the Easter trade."
Virgie was not proof against all this good fortune. Her lips trembled, and she was very near breaking down.
It seemed almost as if heaven had suddenly opened and sent her a kind friend in the midst of her darkness and trouble.
"You are very kind, sir; I feel that you have made me a most liberal offer, and I accept it most gratefully," she said.
Something in her tone—a sort of hopeless cadence mingling with the gratitude, as if with all this good fortune there were a lurking despair in her heart—touched the gentleman deeply.
He was becoming greatly interested in this beautiful woman, who, with that look of heart-broken sadness in her violet eyes, and that grieved droop about her sweet mouth, he believed must have some thrilling history connected with her young life.
"Then, Mrs. Alexander, do your best, and give me something especially nice for Easter," he returned, brightly, and appearing not to notice her emotion.
He arose as he spoke, and took leave of her with a cordial handshake, saying that she would hear from him again soon regarding her other designs, and Virgie went on her homeward way with more of hope and courage than she had known since her great trouble came upon her.
She had nearly reached the street where she lived, when something occurred to give her a fearful start.