Notwithstanding the injunction, the child started off with no special attempt at haste.  The same words were dinned into her ears a hundred times a day.  She did not see why ladies should be in a hurry.  The ladies of her world seemed to have nothing to do but to wear pretty clothes, and to shop, which meant principally the buying of more pretty clothes.  It was all very well to make an extra effort to oblige one occasionally; but if she did it every time she was exhorted to, surely her tired feet would give out before the end of the day.

“Cash is so poky!” complained the salesgirl to her companion behind the counter.

“Hie you, Cash!  Hustle I say!” called the floor-walker peremptorily, as he passed.

Thus warned, the child skurried away, and reappeared after a very brief interval.  As she rushed up with the parcel, an awkward accident occurred.  The lady heedlessly stepped backward.  Cash dodged; but, alas! before she could stop herself, she had dashed into a pyramid of note-paper that stood upon the end of the counter, and sent the boxes scattering over the floor in dire confusion.

“Oh!—­oh, my!” exclaimed the salesgirl, distressed, as she contemplated the wreck of the architectural display.

The disturbance at once brought the floor-walker to the spot.  “Stupid!” he muttered, taking poor Cash by the shoulder.  “Why don’t you look where you’re going?  If you can’t mind what you’re about, we have no use for you here; remember that!”

“Please do not blame the child,” interposed the lady who had unwittingly caused the trouble.  “It was my fault:  I carelessly got in her way.  I am very sorry.”

“Don’t mention it, Mrs. M——.  It is not of the slightest consequence,” said the floor-walker, with a bland smile and a bow.  (Mrs. M——­ was a desirable customer, and he would have said the same thing if she had happened to tip the show-case over.) “We have to keep our employees up to the mark, you know,” he added in a low tone, by way of apology for his brusqueness.  “The best of them become careless.  But Cash has found a friend this time, so we’ll let it pass.”

Cash, who was busily picking up the boxes, made a little grimace to herself at his change of manner.  The lady politely inclined her head by way of acknowledgment, and the floor-walker left abruptly, having suddenly discovered that something required his immediate attention in another part of the store.

When he had disappeared, the little girl looked up and faltered gratefully:  “Thank you, ma’am!”

Mrs. M——­ now for the first time took notice of the individual to whom she had just rendered a service.  She glanced down upon a freckled face of the complexion described as pasty, a pair of greyish-blue eyes, and a tangle of reddish curls just long enough to admit of being tied back with the bit of crumpled ribbon which kept them tidy.  Cash was not of prepossessing appearance; yet perhaps