s shop had vanished; and all through the
day's occupations the memory of this dream oppressed her.

It had been agreed that Ann Eliza should take the clock to be repaired
as soon as they had dined; but while they were still at table a
weak-eyed little girl in a black apron stabbed with innumerable pins
burst in on them with the cry: "Oh, Miss Bunner, for mercy's sake! Miss
Mellins has been took again."

Miss Mellins was the dress-maker upstairs, and the weak-eyed child one
of her youthful apprentices.

Ann Eliza started from her seat. "I'll come at once. Quick, Evelina, the
cordial!"

By this euphemistic name the sisters designated a bottle of cherry
brandy, the last of a dozen inherited from their grandmother, which they
kept locked in their cupboard against such emergencies. A moment later,
cordial in hand, Ann Eliza was hurrying upstairs behind the weak-eyed
child.

Miss Mellins' "turn" was sufficiently serious to detain Ann Eliza for
nearly two hours, and dusk had fallen when she took up the depleted
bottle of cordial and descended again to the shop. It was empty, as
usual, and Evelina sat at her pinking-machine in the back room. Ann
Eliza was still agitated by her efforts to restore the dress-maker, but
in spite of her preoccupation she was struck, as soon as she entered, by
the loud tick of the clock, which still stood on the shelf where she had
left it.

"Why, she's going!" she gasped, before Evelina could question her about
Miss Mellins. "Did she start up again by herself?"

"Oh, no; but I couldn't stand not knowing what time it was, I've got so
accustomed to having her round; and just after you went upstairs Mrs.
Hawkins dropped in, so I asked her to tend the store for a minute, and
I clapped on my things and ran right round to Mr. Ramy's. It turned out
there wasn't anything the matter with her--nothin' on'y a speck of dust
in the works--and he fixed her for me in a minute and I brought her
right back. Ain't it lovely to hear her going again? But tell me about
Miss Mellins, quick!"

For a moment Ann Eliza found no words. Not till she learned that she had
missed her chance did she understand how many hopes had hung upon
it. Even now she did not know why she had wanted so much to see the
clock-maker again.

"I s'pose it's because nothing's ever happened to me," she thought, with
a twinge of envy for the fate which gave Evelina every opportunity
that came their way. "She had the Sunday-school teacher t