Once she determined to accost a man she saw
advancing toward her from a distance, and actually made up to
him for the purpose, but with a hurried bow, and "I beg your
pardon, Miss!" he brushed past. Ellen almost burst into tears.
She longed to turn and run out of the store, but a faint hope
remaining, and an unwillingness to give up her undertaking,
kept her fast. At length one of the clerks in the desk
observed her, and remarked to Mr. St. Clair, who stood by,
"There is a little girl, Sir, who seems to be looking for
something, or waiting for somebody; she has been standing
there a good while." Mr. St. Clair, upon this, advanced to
poor Ellen's relief.
"What do you wish, miss?" he said.
But Ellen had been so long preparing sentences, trying to
utter them, and failing in the attempt, that now, when an
opportunity to speak and be heard was given her, the power of
speech seemed to be gone.
"Do you wish anything, Miss?" inquired Mr. St. Clair again.
"Mother sent me," stammered Ellen — "I wish, if you please,
Sir — Mamma wished me to look at the merinoes, Sir, if you
please."
"Is your Mamma in the store?"
"No, Sir," said Ellen, "she is ill, and cannot come out, and
she sent me to look at merinoes for her, if you please, Sir."
"Here, Saunders," said Mr. St. Clair, "show this young lady
the merinoes."
Mr. Saunders made his appearance from among a little group of
clerks, with whom he had been indulging in a few jokes by way
of relief from the tedium of business.
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