"No, I guess I shan't. I will tell him that I have mentioned the matter to you."
"Perhaps you had better not; his honor, though we have been quite intimate, may not remember my name. But I must leave you now, for the firm gets very uneasy in my absence."
Simon shouldered his bundle again, and moved off, and Katy walked towards home, wondering why a person of so much importance to the Messrs. Sands & Co. should be permitted to degrade himself by carrying bundles. When she got home, she found her mother in a very cheerful frame of mind, the result of her reading and meditation.
"Well. Katy, you come back with an empty tray have you sold all your candy?" asked Mrs. Redburn, as she entered the room.
"Yes, mother, every stick. I have brought back sixty-six cents," replied Katy, emptying her pocket on the bed.
"Sixty-six cents! But you had only thirty sticks of candy."
"You must not blame me for what I have done, mother; I could not help it;" and she proceeded to narrate all the particulars of her forenoon's occupation.
Mrs. Redburn was annoyed at the incident with the fat gentleman; more so than by the rudeness to which Katy had been subjected. The little merchant was so elated at her success, that her mother could not find it in her heart to cast a damper upon her spirits by a single reproach. Perhaps her morning's reflections had subdued her pride so that she did not feel disposed to do so.
After dinner Katy hastened at once to Temple Street again. To her great disappointment she found that Mrs. Gordon and her daughter had been suddenly called to Baltimore by the death of one of her husband's near relatives. But the kind lady had not forgotten her, and that was a great consolation. Michael gave her a note, directed to the mayor, which he instructed her to deliver that day.
With the assistance of Michael, she found the house of the mayor, and though her heart beat violently she resolutely rang the bell at the door.