Page:The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man.djvu/40

32 the feelings go through many changes; and, when Mr. Fuller said, "Here is your riband, Susan May!" Susan was standing with her back to the counter, and looking at the "quarter" as if she were studying it. She had on a deep sun-bonnet; as she raised her head it fell back and disclosed a tear on her cheek, and disclosed it, too, to Harry Aikin, who had come in unobserved, and was standing before her. She hastily threw down the money—it rolled on to the floor—he picked it up—he recognised it, and at once understood the whole. Susan left the shop first, and we believe few ladies, though they may have spent hundreds in the splendid shops of Broadway, have had half the pleasure from their purchases that Susan May had from the acquisition of this two yards of plaid riband. We ask, which was richest (in the true sense of the word), the buyer of Cashmire shawls and blonde capes, or our little friend Susan? And when Harry, overtaking her before she reached her own doorstep, restored the precious "quarter," she was not conscious of an ungratified wish. Had they been a little older, there might have been some shyness, some blushes and stammerings; but now, Susan frankly told him her reluctance to part with it, her joy in getting it back again; and, suspending it by its accustomed riband, she wore it ever after—a little nearer the heart than before!

Charlotte's last obstacle to leaving home was relieved by an invitation from Harry's mother to Susan, to pass the time of her sister's absence with her. "How thoughtful of Mrs. Aikin!" said Charlotte, after she had gratefully accepted the invitation. If there were more of this thoughtfulness, if