“Yes, I s’pose it does,” said Andrew.  “So she has got it!  Well!”

“There she comes now,” said Fanny, “and Grandma Brewster.”

Andrew borrowed money to buy a gold watch and chain for a graduating gift for his daughter.  He would scarcely have essayed anything quite so magnificent, but Fanny innocently tempted him.  The two had been sitting in the door in the cool of the evening, one day in June, about two weeks before the graduation, and had just watched Ellen’s light muslin skirts flutter out of sight.  She had gone down-town to purchase some ribbon for her graduating dress—­she and Floretta Vining, who had come over to accompany her.  “I feel kind of anxious to have her have something pretty when she graduates,” Fanny said, speaking as if she were feeling her way into a mind of opposition.  Neither she nor Andrew had ever owned a watch, and the scheme seemed to her breathless with magnificence.

“Yes, she ought to have something pretty,” agreed Andrew.

“I don’t want her to feel ashamed when she sees the other girls’ presents,” said Fanny.

“That’s so,” assented Andrew.

“Well,” said Fanny, “I’ve been thinkin’—­”

“What?”

“Well, I’ve been thinkin’ that—­of course your mother is goin’ to give her the dress, and that’s all, of course, and it’s a real handsome present.  I ain’t sayin’ a word against that; but there ain’t anybody else to give her much except us.  Poor Eva ’d like to, but she can’t; it takes all she earns, since Jim’s out of work, and I don’t know what she’s goin’ to do.  So that leaves nobody but us, and I’ve been thinkin’—­I dun’no’ what you’ll say, Andrew, but I’ve been thinkin’—­s’pose you took a little money out of the bank, and—­got Ellen—­a watch.”  Fanny spoke the last word in a faint whisper.  She actually turned pale in the darkness.

“A watch?” repeated Andrew.

“Yes, a watch.  I’ve always wanted Ellen to have a gold watch and chain.  I’ve always thought she could, and so she could if you hadn’t been out of work so much.”

“Yes, she could,” said Andrew—­“a watch and mebbe a piano.  I thought I’d be back in Lloyd’s before now.  Well, mebbe I shall before long.  They say there’s better times comin’ by fall.”

“Well, Ellen will be graduated by that time,” said Fanny, “and she ought to have the watch now if she’s ever goin’ to.  She’ll never think so much of it.  Floretta Vining is goin’ to have a watch, too.  Mrs. Cross says her mother told her so; said Mr. Vining had it all bought—­a real handsome one.  I don’t believe Sam Vining can afford to buy a gold watch.  I don’t believe it is all gold, for my part.  They ’ain’t got as much as we have, if Sam has had work steadier.  I don’t believe it’s gold.  I don’t want Ellen to have a watch at all unless it’s a real good one.  It seems to me you’d better take a little money out and buy her one, Andrew.”

“Well, I’ll see,” said Andrew.  He had a terrible sense of guilt before Fanny.  Suppose she knew that there was no money at all in the bank to take out?