"
"Humph!" said Mart, "that is a likely story!"
Then he grew earnest, displayed his treasures, and urged her
acceptance--quite astonished with himself the while. _Did_ he
really want her to go, he wondered, or did he want to please Mrs.
Roberts?
You would have been interested, an hour later, to have seen Mart skip up
the rickety stairs leading to the Calkins abode. You would probably have
thought that she endangered life or limb by her rapid movements; but
Mart was used to such staircases, and the news she had to communicate
required haste.
"There's a chance!" she said, breathless with speed and eagerness;
"Sallie Calkins, there's a chance, and you'd never guess how. Dirk he
wants me to go to a show with him this very night! He's got tickets. It
is a big show,--where all the grand folks go. It is in the very biggest
hall in this city, and Dirk he says I am to go. Sallie Calkins, do you
mean it, truly, that I am to wear your lovely new bonnet and cape? Do
you suppose I can really go anywhere? I don't known why Dirk wants me to
so bad, but he coaxed and coaxed."
Poor Sallie! She stooped quickly to pick up a pin from the floor, so
that Mart might not get a glimpse of her eyes with the sudden tears in
them.
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