e had apparently not intended for such close proximity; but
she had certainly noticed that for the last few weeks Nancy had not
looked well.

It was growing dark one Thursday evening, and Sarah Ann had just brought
the lamp into her mistress's parlour. Miss Michin turned up the light
slowly, remarking, as she did so, "I don't want this glass to crack. I
might do nothing else but buy lamp-glasses if I left the turning-up of
them to Sarah Ann. This one has been boiled, which, Mrs. Dodd says, is a
good thing to make them stand heat." Then she broke off suddenly, and
stared at her apprentice, exclaiming, "Nancy, child, how pale you look!
You must leave off and go home. You shall have a nice cup of tea first.
Where do you feel bad?"

The sympathetic tone brought the tears to Nancy's eyes, perhaps more
than the words, but she answered hastily: "Oh, indeed, dear Miss Michin,
I need not go home. I have a headache, that is all, and I must not leave
off before my time. I ought to stop later, and you so busy."

"That frock of Emma Dodd's is just on finished, isn't it?" said Miss
Michin, in answer.

"All but the hooks," replied Nancy.

"Then sew them on while I make some tea, and you can leave it at the
post-office as you go."

Nancy protested, but Miss Michin insisted, and in a short time the dress
was pinned up in a dark cloth, and Nancy having drunk the tea, more to
please her kind friend than because she thought it would cure her
headache, donned the little jacket and fantastic hat, and went across to
the post-office, which was also a shop of a general description.

Mrs. Dodd was engaged in lighting her shop-window when Nancy entered.

"I have brought Emma's dress, Mrs. Dodd," she began, when that lady had
descended from the high stool on which she had mounted to place the
lamps in the window. "Miss Michin told me to tell you there wasn't
enough of the plush to finish off the lappets to match the collar and
cuffs, but she thinks you'll like it just as well as it is."

Mrs. Dodd examined the little dress, and, having approved of it, asked
in a friendly way what Nancy herself was going to have new this
Christmas.

"Oh, I don't know yet," answered Nancy, colouring deeply. "You see, I'm
not earning yet, and father's wages are small, you know."

"Mr. Hurst is real mean, I know that," exclaimed the post-mistress,
decidedly. "None but a very mean man would have cut your poor father's
wages down after he was laid up with a