ourishy writing, so
unmistakably suggests a bill, that you--well, I do not know what
_you_ do on such an occasion; _my_ letter, which I have been so
anxious to obtain, is flung to the other side of the room.

How is it that bills mount up so quickly? You buy a little ribbon, a
few pairs of gloves, some handkerchiefs--mere items in fact, and yet
when quarter day comes round you are presented with a bill a yard
long, which as your next instalment of money is fully mortgaged, is
calculated to fill you with anything but extreme joy.

Why are the paths leading to destruction always so much easier of
access than any other? It takes so much less time to run up a bill, it
is so much simpler to say, "Will you please enter it to my account?"
than to pay your money down. First the bill has to be added up, and,
strange as it may seem, these shop people appear to take _hours_ over
a simple addition sum. "Eight and elevenpence halfpenny if you please,
ma'am." Of course you have not enough silver, and so are obliged to
wait for change. Then someone has to be found to sign. Altogether it
takes quite five minutes longer paying ready money; and think, how
five minutes after each purchase would mount up in a day's shopping!
I should say that, on an average you might call it two important hours
regularly thrown away. "And a good job, too," perhaps our fathers,
husbands, and brothers would say. But, then, you see, they are
Philistines and do not understand.

But though we suffer somewhat at the hands of these shop people, I
think in their turn they have to endure a great deal more from their
customers. I have seen old ladies order nearly the whole shop out,
turn over the articles, and having entirely exhausted the patience of
their victims, say, "Yes--all very pretty--but I don't think I will
buy any to-day, thank you," and they move off to other counters to
enact the same scene over again. Selfish old things!

I was dreadfully hard up a short time ago, and of course my bills were
ten times as big as usual. I had no money coming in, and could not
conceive how I was to meet my debts.

It is astonishing, when you come to try it, how few paths there are
open for poverty-stricken ladies to make a little money, especially
when your object is to keep your difficulties a secret from your
mankind. I tried every imaginable way without success. What is the
good of having an expensive education, of being taught French and
German--neither of whic