, to give
her the benefit of her taste on this as well as some other purchases.
Mr. Brandon was asked if he was not going down Regent Street? He said
he was, and he would be very happy to go with Miss Phillips--as he had
nothing particular to do, and Phillips was out, and Jane had the
children at their lessons, and he did not find it amusing to be left
TETE-A-TETE with Mrs. Phillips.

Miss Harriett was quite unaware of her own weakness, or she never would
have asked a lover to go with her in a draper's shop. Elsie had seen
something of Mrs. Phillips's unreasonableness and unscrupulousness, but
this was the first time she had been with her sister-in-law, and she
did not expect from a young lady of such professed good principles, and
good-nature, such an utter abnegation of these excellent qualities in
dealing with tradespeople. She blushed for her companion, who did not
blush for herself. She herself chose quickly, with the certain judgment
of a fine taste and a practised eye; but what she fixed on as most
suitable for Miss Phillips's complexion and style, was not always of a
suitable price. When driven from the expensive to something cheaper,
then it was shabby and not fit to wear. Miss Phillips had come out
determined to get as good things as possible, and to pay as small a
price as possible for them; she would not be put off with an inferior
article, and yet she was not willing to give the value of a superior.
Elsie, who had herself waited on ladies of this character, and felt her
body ache all over from the fatigue of being civil to them, was sorry
for the shopmen, who fetched out box after box, and displayed article
after article, without anything being exactly the thing which their
customer wanted; while Walter Brandon stood beside the two ladies,
finding it harder than ever to feel sentimental about Harriett Phillips.

Leigh Hunt recommends men to choose their wives in drapers' shops; for
if a woman is conscientious, reasonable, and expeditious there, he
thinks a man may be sure she will be fit for all the duties of life.
But perhaps his test is too severe for general use, for many of the
best of wives and mothers, the kindest of friends, and the most pious
of Christians, are very far from appearing amiable under circumstances
of such great temptation. The obsequious manners of British shopmen,
who never show any spirit or any resentment, tend to lull conscience,
while the strife between the desire for display an