MILDRED'S BARGAIN.
A Story for Girls.
BY MRS. JOHN LILLIE.
Chapter III.
Milly's heart gave a bound, and then seemed to stand still.
"Here I am," said the woman, smiling. "I've called to make you even a better offer. You pay me fifty cents a week for that dress, and any week you can't pay, why, you can return the silk, provided it's decently clean, and I'll allow you a couple o' dollars, when I take it back, for the making. Come, now, I don't mind throwing in the linings, and I won't bother you for the first fortnight."
Now, as you have seen, Milly had gone through just the process of reasoning to make the peddler's words sound most alluring. The woman read in the young girl's face an instant's doubt followed by decision, and as quickly as possible she produced from her bag the roll of gray silk. Mildred never quite remembered how she made that purchase, or rather that bargain, for honorable purchase it certainly was not. The shining silk and the linings were put into her hands, and before she knew it she had signed a paper, a copy of which the peddler gave her. The transaction only occupied a few moments. Milly tucked the silk away in the room devoted to the bonnets and cloaks and luncheons of the sales-women, and was in her place before she fully realized that her longing of the day previous was granted. The morning passed heavily, and she was well pleased when it came her turn to take thirty minutes for lunch. But on entering the cloak-room her dismay was unbounded. Three or four of the shop-girls were clustered about Mildred's precious parcel, and a chorus of voices greeted her entrance.
"Look here, Miss Lee. Whose do you suppose this is?"
"Well, isn't this lovely?"
"Could any one have stolen it?"