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 merchant in linen goods and her mother helped him make sales in the shop. No time remained for her to have similar reflections, and her conversations with her husband always appeared important and intensely interesting to both. Their business brought them a tidy income and assured their daughters a handsome dowry.

Ah! How well she remembered the little shop under the arcade into which the daughters were never allowed to enter lest there might appear to be a connection between the shop and their sweet little faces which were only partially hidden by the rich veils. They were not meant to be salesgirls, for they were destined to be young ladies of the most cultured and most select circles of society.

The young wife laid aside the blue ribbon and fastened on a pink one instead. She discovered that it really was much more becoming to her, and as a result she felt a corresponding degree of satisfaction.

She walked out of the bedroom, gave her hand to the angular maid to be kissed and passed on through the remaining rooms in which the best of order prevailed.

There really was nothing to think of!

She remembered again that her husband would soon arrive and once more experienced a disquieting uneasiness. What would they talk about today at dinner? Perhaps he does not like lentils and will be vexed when Veronica brings the dish on the table. Perhaps, how-