mediately," said Mrs. Bixby, majestically to
Jessie, "for allowing goods to be taken away from your counter without
being paid for, and for not waiting on your customers properly. You
were very impudent. And...."

"Why, you're a horrible old woman!" interrupted Arethusa, as if the
discovery was most surprising. "A perfectly horrible old woman! But go
right ahead and report, if you want to! I reckon it won't hurt anything
very much, because I brought the shawl back and I'm going to charge it
right now, this very minute!"

"And _you_," continued Mrs. Bixby, once more consigning the tempestuously
excited Arethusa to nothingness with her glance, "are the most decidedly
ill-bred young person I ever saw!"

She sailed away and sought the floor-walker.

His glance, after a brief conversation with her, was sternly directed
in the direction of the shawl department. He nodded several times in
answer to what she said to him, and finally bowed her deferentially
towards the outer door.

Arethusa turned to Jessie, whose rather frail hands were trembling in
their effort to fold her shawls, and her sympathetic heart ached for
this evident distress.

"I wouldn't mind, Jessie. That old beast can't really do anything that
would hurt you, can she?"

"I don't know," miserably.

"Was it very wrong to let me take the shawl to have it matched before I
had paid for it?"

"It's against the rules. People could steal things that way. But I knew
you'd bring it right back."

"That nasty old thing!" Arethusa leaned earnestly across the
counter-top. "I'll buy two or three shawls. Would it be all right
then?"

Jessie was forced to a smile at this suggested method of straightening
out the affair.

"That wouldn't make very much difference about this, I'm afraid. And
besides, I don't suppose your mother would like your doing it, very
much!"

"She wouldn't care," affirmed the daughter, stoutly. "She wouldn't care
the least bit. She's the loveliest person in the world!" Suddenly, an
altogether new idea seized her. "They won't discharge you, will they?"
It was a horrible thought!

"Oh, no! That is, I don't suppose so. It depends on what she said,
mostly. If she told the truth, I might just get reprimanded. They'll
dock me probably, though; but that's almost as bad to me right now, as
being discharged," bitterly; "I need every single cent of my money."

"Oh, well," Arethusa patted Jessie consolingly on the arm, "Don't you
worry! I'll get