“But there’s the names,” said she, so astonished that she didn’t remember she was angry.

“Happened so.”

“Oh, yes!  ‘Happened so’ A likely story!  It’s nothing but your envy, and that’s all!”

“Faith!” says I, for I forgot she didn’t know how close she struck.

“Well,—­I mean——­There, don’t let’s talk about it any more!  How under the sun am I going to get these ends tied?”

“Come here.  There!  Now for the other one.”

“No, I sha’n’t let you do that; you hurt me dreadfully, and you got angry and took the big needle.”

“I thought you expected to be hurt.”

“I didn’t expect to be stabbed.”

“Well, just as you please.  I suppose you’ll go round with one ear-ring.”

“Like a little pig with his ear cropped?  No, I shall do it myself.  See there, Georgie!” and she threw a bit of a box into my hands.

I opened it, and there lay inside, on their velvet cushion, a pair of the prettiest things you ever saw,—­a tiny bunch of white grapes, and every grape a round pearl, and all hung so that they would tinkle together on their golden stems every time Faith shook her head,—­and she had a cunning little way of shaking it often enough.

“These must have cost a penny, Faith,” said I.  “Where’d you get them?”

“Mr. Gabriel gave them to me, just now.  He went up-town and bought them.  And I don’t want him to know that my ears weren’t bored.”

“Mr. Gabriel?  And you took them?”

“Of course I took them, and mighty glad to get them.”

“Faith, dear,” said I, “don’t you know that you shouldn’t accept presents from gentlemen, and especially now you’re a married woman, and especially from those of higher station?”

“But he isn’t higher.”

“You know what I mean.  And then, too, he is; for one always takes rank from one’s husband.”

Faith looked rather downcast at this.

“Yes,” said I,—­“and pearls and calico”——­

“Just because you haven’t got a pair yourself!  There, be still!  I don’t want any of your instructions in duty!”

“You ought to put up with a word from a friend, Faith,” said I.  “You always come to me with your grievances.  And I’ll tell you what I’ll do.  You used to like these coral branches of mine; and if you’ll give those back to Mr. Gabriel, you shall have the coral.”

Well, Faith she hesitated, standing there trying to muster her mind to the needle, and it ended by her taking the coral, though I don’t believe she returned the pearls,—­but we none of us ever saw them afterwards.