"
Mrs. Montgomery's heart answered this with an involuntary
pang. He saw the shade that passed over her face, as she said
sadly —
"I know it, Sir; and it was with strong unwillingness that I
allowed Ellen this morning to do as she had proposed; but in
truth I was but making a choice between difficulties. I am
very sorry I chose as I did. If you are a father, Sir, you
know better than I can tell you, how grateful I am for your
kind interference."
"Say nothing about that, Ma’am; the less the better. I am an
old man, and not good for much now, except to please young
people. I think myself best off when I have the best chance to
do that. So if you will be so good as to choose that merino,
and let Miss Ellen and me go and despatch our business, you
will be conferring, and not receiving, a favour. And any other
errand that you please to intrust her with, I'll undertake to
see her safe through."
His look and manner obliged Mrs. Montgomery to take him at his
word. A very short examination of Ellen's patterns ended in
favour of the gray merino; and Ellen was commissioned, not
only to get and pay for this, but also to choose a dark dress
of the same stuff, and enough of a certain article called
nankeen for a coat; Mrs. Montgomery truly opining that the old
gentleman's care would do more than see her scathless — that
it would have some regard to the justness and prudence of her
purchases.
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