"What's the matter, Saunders?" said one of his brother clerks, passing him.
"Why, I've been here this half hour showing cloths to a child that doesn't know merino from a sheep's back," said he, laughing. And, some other customers coming up at the moment, he was as good as his word, and left Ellen, to attend to them.
Ellen stood a moment stock still, just where he had left her, struggling with her feelings of mortification; she could not endure to let them be seen. Her face was on fire; her head was dizzy. She could not stir at first, and, in spite of her utmost efforts, she _could_ not command back one or two rebel tears that forced their way; she lifted her hand to her face to remove them as quietly as possible. "What is all this about, my little girl?" said a strange voice at her side. Ellen started, and turned her face, with the tears but half wiped away, towards the speaker. It was an old gentleman an odd old gentleman, too, she thought one she certainly would have been rather shy of, if she had seen him under other circumstances. But though his face was odd, it looked kindly upon her, and it was a kind tone of voice in which his question had been put; so he seemed to her like a friend. "What is all this?" repeated the old gentleman. Ellen began to tell what it was, but the pride which had forbidden her to weep before strangers, gave way at one touch of sympathy, and she poured out tears much faster than words, as she related her story, so that it was some little time before the old gentleman could get a clear notion of her case. He waited very patiently till she had finished; but then he set himself in good earnest about righting the wrong. "Hallo! you, Sir!" he shouted, in a voice that made everybody look round; "you merino man! come and show your goods. Why aren't you at your post, Sir?" as Mr. Saunders came up, with an altered countenance "here's a young lady you've left standing unattended to, I don't know how long; are these your manners?"
"The young lady did not wish anything, I believe, Sir," returned Mr. Saunders, softly.
"You know better, you scoundrel!" retorted the old gentleman, who was in a great passion; "I saw the whole matter with my own eyes. You are a disgrace to the store, Sir, and deserve to be sent out of it, which you are like enough to be."