"
"Well, why not?"
"Can't you understand that Reggie might not care to meet a young man out
of a draper's shop?"
"But he comes to call on people in a gro--"
"That's different," Bessie quickly announced. "We weren't always there,
remember."
"Wednesday afternoons I am at home after three. Saturdays I am at home all
day."
"I know," Bessie said, but did not promise to avail herself of the
protection offered by her sister's presence on those occasions.
CHAPTER XIV
A Tea-Party In Bridge Street
His time being so fully occupied in his own business during the week, and
those hours he had been wont to pass with his friend William Day being
still unfilled, Mr. George Boult had fallen into the evil habit of coming
to hold a business consultation with the widow on the Sunday afternoons.
The Day family complained bitterly of this custom. The poor grocer-woman's
one blessed day was no longer hers, to be passed from morn to eve in the
midst of her children, in rest and peace and forgetfulness of business
worries.
She was too tired for church, she always pleaded; but it was not fatigue
alone which kept her from public worship. She was accustomed to her place
behind the counter now, and in the work-days of the week was too busy for
regret, too anxious to sell her goods to feel any shame in the occupation.
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