u should go now, then," said William, with his
mouth full of lemon cheese-cake. "Tell Marion what I say, and I know
she will agree with me. Tell her I have a chance of some orders this
winter, and you two shall have the first I can get hold of."

"You are very kind," said Kate. "I am sure Marion will be pleased, if
she can only manage to go."

"And won't you be pleased too?" said the young man, looking round for
another untasted dainty.

"I--I don't know, I don't think I shall be able to go; I don't see how
we can both get out together."

"Oh, Marion will manage that, I daresay. You must go, Kate, if I can
get the orders."

After a little more talk and a little more persuasion, William said he
would take two pennyworth of buns, and gave Kate twopence as he spoke.

Kate handed him two buns and glanced over the impoverished plates on
the counter, trying to reckon how many had been taken, while he in
equal astonishment looked at the small bag she handed to him.

"Miss Kate, I am a wholesale customer, you know," he said at last.

"Wholesale?" repeated Kate; "I don't understand. Of course I know we
supply a few shops at a different rate--at wholesale, as you call it,
but----"

"You don't mean to say Marion has never let you into the secret of our
wholesale trade," whispered William.

"I don't know what you mean, I'm sure."

"Well, never mind, it don't matter; I've got two buns, and I've paid
for them;" and William was turning away from the counter, but Kate said
quickly--

"Stop a minute; there are those other things you've had off the plates."

"Oh, it's all right, I'll settle with Marion for them. Good
afternoon." And the next minute he was gone, leaving Kate in a state
of bewildered astonishment not easily described. She knew that Marion
often helped herself to stamps, envelopes, and paper out of her
mistress's desk, but she could not think that she would rob her to such
an extent as William's words would imply, for it was robbery, nothing
less, to give away their employer's property for favours bestowed on
themselves. _This_, then, was how such favours were to be made up to
them.

Kate longed for, and yet dreaded, her cousin's return, that she might
talk to her about this, yet wondering at the same time how she should
begin, how she should tell her what she thought of it. But, as it
often happens, Marion herself helped her out of the difficulty, for as
she came into the shop she said, in a hur