Elizabeth took the box, seeming from some cause or other tongue-tied. She sat looking out through the open door at the storm in a mixture of feelings, the uppermost of which was vexation.
"I hope more than one end of this box may be trusted," she presently roused herself to say. "I have no idea of giving half trust to anything."
"Yet that is quite as much as it is safe to give to most things," said Winthrop.
"Is it?"
"I am afraid so."
"I wouldn't give a pin for anything I couldn't trust entirely," said Elizabeth.
"Which shews what a point of perfection the manufacture of pins has reached since the days of Anne Boleyn," said Winthrop.
"Of Anne Boleyn! — What of them then?"
"Only that a statute was passed in that time, entitled, 'An act for the true making of pins;' so I suppose they were then articles of some importance. But the box may be trusted, Miss Haye, for strength, if not for agreeableness. A quarter of agreeableness with a remainder of strength, is a fair proportion, as things go."
"Do you mean to compare life with this dirty box?" said
Elizabeth.