[Illustration: _Umbrella Maker_]
Does she not look as if she thought something might be the matter with
it? I think she had better borrow a pair of spectacles of the optician.
Let us go a little nearer, mamma, I wish I could hear her speak."
As Caroline promised to keep a guard over her risible muscles, her
mamma granted her wish of being nearer to the little old woman, who was
prying all over the nice new umbrella.
"Six and twenty shillings, Mr. Bates! why how could you think of asking
a person like me, to give you six and twenty shillings! If you will
take twenty, Mr. Bates, I will have it, though I think it looks a
little soiled."
The man assured her that he could not take less than what he had asked,
but that she might have a cotton one much cheaper.
"A cotton one, indeed! no, no, I am not so badly off, but what I can
buy a silk umbrella if I like, but I won't give that money for one.
So good morning, Mr. Bates."
"Umbrellas are a modern invention," said Mrs. Durnford, "at least
within thirty or forty years, and in the country in particular they
are very useful, but in London they are troublesome, from the number
of passengers which we meet. I think, Caroline, that you must have a
new parasol, for yours forms but a sad contrast to your sister's,
though it was bought at the same time. I think the parasol equally as
convenient, and as necessary to our comfort as the umbrella. It shades
us from the burning rays of a summer sun, and enables us to take a long
walk without being incommoded by its beams. We will now take a look at
those