Page:Live and Let Live.djvu/102

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102
LIVE AND LET LIVE.

as pale as when she had last saw her, and whether Jemmie had felt very bad about her not coming home!

"There's tears on her cheek, and she sleeping!" said Ferris, as she got into bed that night. "They sting me. God forgive me!"

The next morning Lucy seized a favourable moment to ask Mrs. Ardley to select the books. "Oh, there's no hurry, child," said Mrs. Ardley; "I can't possibly spare you to go home to-day. It's Monday, you know, and we are to have company to dinner, and—" Mrs. Ardley was interrupted by a request from David that Lucy might help him with the breakfast things; this was followed by a message from Ferris asking Lucy's aid. "You see how it is," resumed Mrs. Ardley, after giving an affirmative to both applications, "you must wait till to-morrow—come, don't look like all the woes! I'll get your books ready now, so there will be nothing to detain you when the time comes," This she immediately did, and in the indulgence of her good-nature quite forgot the virtue that was appropriate to the occasion. Sore as Lucy's disappointment was, that boasted specific for happiness, having a little more to do than she could do, shortened the twenty-four hours which followed.

"Now, Mrs. Ferris," she said, "I am going. I have finished all you told me to do."

"Finished! you have not brought down the things for the pudding?"

"Yes."

"But you have not beaten the eggs?"

"Yes, and ground the spice, and the coffee, and