CHAPTER VIII.
GRANDMOTHER'S STORY----( _continued_).
"O while you live, tell truth." HENRY IV., Part 1.
So in a few minutes they were all settled again, and grandmother went on.
"We were walking through a very narrow street, I was telling you--was I not?
when I caught sight of something that suddenly changed my ideas.
'What was this something ?' you are all asking, I see.

It was a china cup in a shop window we were passing, a perfect match it seemed to me of the unfortunate one still lamenting its fate by rattling its bits in my pocket! It was a shabby little old shop, of which there were a good many in the town, filled with all sorts of curiosities, and quite in the front of the window, as conspicuous as if placed there on purpose, stood the cup.

I darted forward to beg my father to let me wait a moment, but just then, curiously enough, he had met a friend and was standing talking to him, and when I touched his arm, he turned rather hastily, for, as I told you, he had not been pleased with my way of replying about my grandmother.

And he said to me I must not be so impatient, but wait till he had finished speaking to Mr.Lennox.I asked him if I might look in at the shop window, and he said 'Yes, of course I might,' so I flew back, the bits rattle-rattling in my pocket, and stood gazing at the twin-cup.
I must tell you that I happened to have in my possession an unusual amount of money just then--ten shillings, actually ten whole shillings, which my father had given me on my birthday, and as I always brought my purse with me when I came into the town, there it was all ready! I looked and looked at the cup till I was satisfied it was a perfect match, then glancing up the street and seeing my father still talking to his friend, I crept timidly into the shop, and asked the price of the pink cup and saucer in the window.
"The old man in the shop was a German; afterwards my grandmother told me he was a Jew, and well accustomed to having his prices beaten down.

He looked at me curiously and said to me, "'Ach! too moch for leetle young lady like you.