"Please, sir, I want —"
"There! stop," said Mr. Lamb; "don't you see I'm busy. I can't
attend to you just now; you must wait. Are these baskets
better, ma'am?" he said, coming back to Daisy and a smooth
voice.
Daisy felt troubled, but she tried to attend to her business.
She asked the price of the baskets.
"Those first I showed you, ma'am, are three pence apiece —
these are sixpence. This is quite a tasty basket," said Mr.
Lamb, balancing one on his forefinger. "Being open, you see,
it shows the fruit through. I think these might answer your
purpose."
"What are those?" said Daisy, pointing to another kind.
"Those, ma'am, are not strawberry baskets."
"But please let me see one. — What is the price?"
"These fancy baskets, ma'am, you know, are another figure.
These are not intended for fruit. These are eighteen pence
apiece, ma'am."
Daisy turned the baskets and the price over. They were very
neat! they would hold as many berries as the sixpenny ones,
and look pretty too, as for a festival they should. The
sixpenny ones were barely neat — they had no gala look about
them at all. While Daisy's eye went from one to the other, it
glanced upon the figure of the poor, patient, little waiting
girl who stood watching her.
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