n rejoined.

'And you know where she is gone,' hazarded Fledgeby.

'Cannot undertake to say, sir, really,' replied Miss Wren.

The quaint little chin met Mr Fledgeby's gaze with such a baffling
hitch, that that agreeable gentleman was for some time at a loss how to
resume his fascinating part in the dialogue. At length he said:

'Miss Jenny!--That's your name, if I don't mistake?'

'Probably you don't mistake, sir,' was Miss Wren's cool answer; 'because
you had it on the best authority. Mine, you know.'

'Miss Jenny! Instead of coming up and being dead, let's come out and
look alive. It'll pay better, I assure you,' said Fledgeby, bestowing
an inveigling twinkle or two upon the dressmaker. 'You'll find it pay
better.'

'Perhaps,' said Miss Jenny, holding out her doll at arm's length, and
critically contemplating the effect of her art with her scissors on her
lips and her head thrown back, as if her interest lay there, and not in
the conversation; 'perhaps you'll explain your meaning, young man, which
is Greek to me.--You must have another touch of blue in your trimming,
my dear.' Having addressed the last remark to her fair client, Miss
Wren proceeded to snip at some blue fragments that lay before her, among
fragments of all colours, and to thread a needle from a skein of blue
silk.

'Look here,' said Fledgeby.--'Are you attending?'

'I am attending, sir,' replied Miss Wren, without the slightest
appearance of so doing. 'Another touch of blue in your trimming, my
dear.'

'Well, look here,' said Fledgeby, rather discouraged by the
circumstances under which he found himself pursuing the conversation.
'If you're attending--'

('Light blue, my sweet young lady,' remarked Miss Wren, in a sprightly
tone, 'being best suited to your fair complexion and your flaxen
curls.')

'I say, if you're attending,' proceeded Fledgeby, 'it'll pay better in
this way. It'll lead in a roundabout manner to your buying damage and
waste of Pubsey and Co. at a nominal price, or even getting it for
nothing.'

'Aha!' thought the dressmaker. 'But you are not so roundabout, Little
Eyes, that I don't notice your answering for Pubsey and Co. after all!
Little Eyes, Little Eyes, you're too cunning by half.'

'And I take it for granted,' pursued Fledgeby, 'that to get the most of
your materials for nothing would be well worth your while, Miss Jenny?'

'You may take it for granted,' returned the dressmaker with many knowing
nods, 'that