Page:Ethel Churchill 3.pdf/281

Rh self-respect of the obliged has been too much forgotten: we have degraded, where we should have encouraged. The remedy lies with time, and with knowledge; but there must be much to redress in the social system, which has luxury at one extreme, and starvation at the other. Lavinia approached the counter with her usual careless air; and, laying down the locket, named its price. There were two men in the shop—brothers, from their obvious likeness—sallow, with sharp features, to which no possible change could bring any other expression than a sort of dull cunning. The eyes were small, and of a dead filmy black; they said nothing, even when fixed upon you. One of the brothers never moved from the high desk at which he was seated. He gave one cautious glance at the visitor; and, after that, never looked from his paper. The other took the locket, examined it. carefully, and laid it down, saying, in a voice that closely resembled the hissing of a snake— "You ask too much!"