“You’ll be quite the fashion,” continued she; “and I presume, like most fashionable gentlemen, your clothes are not paid for.”

I replied, laughing, that they were not; but that they should be, if I lived and could work.

“I’ve heard the whole story from old Ben,” replied she.  “Come in to-morrow, Jack; I want to speak with you.”

I did so in the forenoon, when she put a five-shilling piece in my hand, and said, “That’s from me, to help you to pay your debt to old Nanny.  But that’s not all, Jack; I’ve coaxed the doctor (not that he required much coaxing, to do him justice), and here’s two half-crowns from him, which, I believe, will go about as far as my five shillings.  Now, Jack, you look very happy; so, just out of gratitude, run as fast as you can, and make poor old Nanny happy, for she moans over her generous fit, and wonders all day long whether you will ever pay her again.”

I had listened all this while to Mrs. St. Felix, but I was so moved by her kindness and generosity that I could not speak.  I had received money for services performed, and I had obtained it from Nanny as a loan, to be repaid with interest; but so much money, as a gift, had never entered into my imagination.  I could not restrain my feelings.  I dropped my face on the counter to conceal the tears which escaped.

“I can’t say ‘thank you,’ as I wish, indeed I can’t,” said I, as I looked up at her.

“Why, you foolish boy, you have said thank you,” replied the widow; “and now run away, for I must leave the shop a minute.”

This assistance made me redouble my exertions, and in three months I had repaid the whole.  The last portion which was due I received from Virginia.  She knew how much I paid off every week; and when on Sunday I told her that I had only one and sixpence owing, she ran upstairs, and, when she came down again, put the sum into my hand.  She had been saving up all she could coax out of my mother ever since I had first obtained the clothes; and great indeed was her delight when she gave me the money—­she kissed me, and began to dance, although it was Sunday, and then she proposed that we should walk together to old Nanny’s, and close the account.  We found the old woman sitting on her steps; the door was open, but the shop shutters were up.  On the Saturday night I had paid her two shillings, so that she did not expect to see me.  Virginia put the one and sixpence in her hand, saying, “Now brother has paid you all.”

“Yes, darling, he has,” replied old Nanny; “but then he promised—­”

“I know I did,” interrupted I; “and I will keep my promise.  I promised you good bargains.”

“You’re an honest boy, Jack, and what’s more strange, your sister isn’t a spoiled girl; but that’s not her mother’s fault.  My dear, if it was not Sunday you would be able to see all the pretty things in my shop, and perhaps you might like something.  You must come another day.”