The Bracelets | Page 8

entertain Louisa, she heard the voice of an old pedlar who often used to
come to the house. Down stairs she ran immediately to ask Mrs.
Villars's permission to bring him into the hall.
Mrs. Villars consented, and away Cecilia ran to proclaim the news to
her companions; then first returning into the hall, she found the pedlar
just unbuckling his box, and taking it off his shoulders. "What would
you be pleased to want, Miss?" said he. "I've all kinds of tweezer-cases,
rings, and lockets of all sorts," continued he, opening all the glittering
drawers successively.
"Oh!" said Cecilia, shutting the drawer of lockets which tempted her
most, "these are not the things which I want; have you any china
figures, any mandarins?"
"Alack-a-day, Miss, I had a great stock of that same china ware, but
now I'm quite out of them kind of things; but I believe," said he,
rummaging in one of the deepest drawers, "I believe I have one left,
and here it is."
"Oh, that is the very thing! what's its price?"
"Only three shillings, ma'am." Cecilia paid the money, and was just
going to carry off the mandarin, when the pedlar took out of his
great-coat pocket a neat mahogany case; it was about a foot long, and

fastened at each end by two little clasps; it had besides a small lock in
the middle.
"What is that?" said Cecilia, eagerly.
"It's only a china figure, Miss, which I am going to carry to an elderly
lady, who lives nigh at hand, and who is mighty fond of such things."
"Could you let me look at it?"
"And welcome, Miss," said he, and opened the case.
"O goodness! how beautiful!" exclaimed Cecilia.
It was a figure of Flora, crowned with roses, and carrying a basket of
flowers in her hand. Cecilia contemplated it with delight. "How I
should like to give this to Louisa," said she to herself; and at last
breaking silence, "Did you promise it to the old lady?"
"O no, Miss; I didn't promise it--she never saw it; and if so be that
you'd like to take it, I'd make no more words about it."
"And how much does it cost?"
"Why, Miss, as to that, I'll let you have it for half-a-guinea."
[Illustration]
Cecilia immediately produced the box in which she kept her treasure,
and emptying it upon the table, she began to count the shillings; alas!
there were but six shillings. "How provoking!" said she; "then I can't
have it--where's the mandarin? O I have it," said she, taking it up, and
looking at it with the utmost disgust. "Is this the same that I had
before?"
"Yes, Miss, the very same," replied the pedlar, who, during this time,
had been examining the little box out of which Cecilia had taken her
money; it was of silver.

"Why, ma'am," said he, "since you've taken such a fancy to the piece, if
you've a mind to make up the remainder of the money, I will take this
here little box, if you care to part with it."
Now this box was a keepsake from Leonora to Cecilia. "No," said
Cecilia hastily, blushing a little, and stretching out her hand to receive
it.
"Oh, Miss!" said he, returning it carelessly, "I hope there's no offence; I
meant but to serve you, that's all. Such a rare piece of china-work has
no cause to go a begging," added he, putting the Flora deliberately into
the case; then turning the key with a jerk, he let it drop into his pocket,
and lifting up his box by the leather straps, he was preparing to depart.
"Oh, stay one minute!" said Cecilia, in whose mind there had passed a
very warm conflict during the pedlar's harangue. "Louisa would so like
this Flora," said she, arguing with herself; "besides, it would be so
generous in me to give it to her instead of that ugly mandarin; that
would be doing only common justice, for I promised it to her, and she
expects it. Though, when I come to look at this mandarin, it is not even
so good as hers was; the gilding is all rubbed off, so that I absolutely
must buy this for her. O yes, I will, and she will be so delighted! and
then every body will say it is the prettiest thing they ever saw, and the
broken mandarin will be forgotten forever."
Here Cecilia's hand moved, and she was just going to decide: "O! but
stop," said she to herself; "consider Leonora gave me this box, and it is
a keepsake; however, now we have quarreled, and I dare say that she
would not mind my parting with it; I'm sure that I should not care if she
was to give