“So, Miss, you have come for the amount of your bill!”
“Yes, m’m, if you please.”
“Don’t mem me as if I was fifty, Miss.”
“No, m’m.”
“Did I not forbid your saying marm to me—what is the amount of the bill?”
“You have it, m’—— I mean Miss.”
“That is better. Ah, yes, here it is, $17 19, What did your mistress say about the 19 cents?”
“That she would take it off.”
“Very well; here is seventeen dollars. Receipt it.” Mary took a pen from an inkstand on the table and acknowledged the payment.
“Humph, you write too pretty a hand for an apprentice girl,” said Miss Clayton, glancing contemptuously at Mary’s beautiful chirography. “I dare say you can dance too?”