He wants you to tell everybody that he is quite at
their service if they want anything done."

"That is very, very good of Mr. Dean. Polly,
d'you hear that? Is not the Reverend gentleman
truly good?"

"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Hegner, a trifle mechanically.

She felt a touch of sharp envy as she looked at
the beautiful girl standing there. Though Edith
Haworth knew very little of Mrs. Hegner, except
that Mrs. Hegner's sister was her maid, Mrs. Hegner
knew a great deal about Miss Haworth. How
she had gone up to London just for one month of
the season, and how during that one month she had
become engaged to a rich young gentleman, a baronet.
He was in the Army, too, but he couldn't be
much of a soldier, for he seemed to be a great deal
in Witanbury -- at least he had been here a great
deal during the last three weeks. The two often
walked about the town together; once they had stood
for quite a long time just opposite the open doors
of the Stores, and Mrs. Hegner on that occasion had
looked at the handsome couple with sympathetic interest
and excitement.

But now, tonight, nothing but sharp envy filled
her soul. It was her fate, poor, pretty Polly's fate,
to sit behind that horrid glass partition over there,
taking money, paying out endless small change, compelled
always to look pleasant, or Manfred, if he
caught her looking anything else, even when giving
a farthing change out of a penny, would soon know
the reason why! The young lady who stood smiling
just within the door was not half as "fetching" as

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p065 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p066w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p067

v?