"Do not say 'I suppose,' my dear. You must tell him."
"Yes, I know I must," he acknowledged. "I have been thinking about it all night. But I don't like to."
"Ah, child! we have many things to do that we 'don't like.' But the first trouble is always the worst. Look it fully in the face, and it will melt away. There is no help for it in this matter, William; your duty is plain. There's Mr. Lynn looking out for you."
William went out, heavy with the thought of the task he should have to accomplish after breakfast. He knew that he must do it. It was a duty, as his mother had said; and she had fully impressed upon them all, from their infancy, the necessity of looking out for their duty and doing it, whether in great things or in small.
Mr. Ashley entered the manufactory that morning at his usual hour, half-past nine. He opened and read his letters, and then was engaged for some time with Samuel Lynn. By ten o'clock the counting-house was clear. Mr. Ashley was alone in it, and William knew that his time was come. He went in, and approached Mr. Ashley's desk.
Mr. Ashley, who was writing, looked up. "What is it?"
William's face grew red and white by turns. He was of a remarkably sensitive nature; and these sensitive natures cannot help betraying their inward emotion. Try as he would, he could not get a word out. Mr. Ashley was surprised. "What is the matter?" he wonderingly asked.
"If you please, sir—I am very sorry—it is about the letter," he stammered, and was unable to get any further.
"The letter!" repeated Mr. Ashley. "What letter? Not the letter I gave you to post?"
"I forgot it, sir,"—and William's own voice sounded to his ear painfully clear.