"When I goes to service," Peggy said loftily; "I shall go out to real ladies, who don't keep no shops." "I'd start with Buckingham Palace," said the factory girl witheringly; "but p'raps that wouldn't be 'igh enough for yer!" Peggy promptly parted company with her. She turned into a broad street with her little charge, and sauntered past lines of shops, occasionally pointing out some desirable objects to him, but for the most part pursuing her thoughts in silence. At last a smart draper's brought her to a standstill. Peggy often amused herself by pretending she had come out with a full purse to buy an outfit for service. Now she could not resist playing at the same old game. "Now, Peggy, take your choice. There are prints there, pink and blue, but no dark lilac like Mrs. Creek had. But that's a pretty stripe over in the corner. You'd look fine in that. And oh my! What cheap caps, with real broidery round 'em, and only twopence three farthings each!" She paused, and looked at the caps longingly. "If I could try 'em on, just to see how I looked, and if I could pin it on proper! Why shouldn't I buy one? There now! Come on, h'Arthur, and I'll do it, this very minit!" Into the shop she went with the air of a duchess. If there was anything that Peggy loved, it was shopping. "Tis the only time folks is civil," she would say. "They don't bawl at me, nor yet scold then, and it makes me feel as if I'm a bigger person than them!" "I wish to see some of them there caps, please," she said, taking a seat at the counter, with her chin well tilted up. "Caps for service I want." "Certainly," said a young woman politely, "here are a cheap lot just come in." "I hope they washes," Peggy said, up one on the tip of her finger. "Sweepin' rooms do make one's caps so dirty," she added, with a knowing shake of her head. "Oh, they wash right enough," was the reply; "see here, catch hold of this string, undo it, and they come out flat! There you are!" Peggy gazed at the cap, trying hard to conceal her surprise. "'Tis like a Jack-in-the-box!" she said to herself; then aloud— "I'll take one, please, and try how I like it. I'm rather partic'lar as to caps." The young woman tried to conceal a smile, but she wrapped the purchase up into a small parcel, and Peggy departed in great spirits. "'Tis the first step to service," she said; "but I don't know where I can try it on. Aunt has the only looking-glass. And I don't like tellin' to Mrs. Creek; she'd think it silly!" She went home with Arthur, then climbed the steep stairs again. She crammed the cap into the pocket of her dress, then went in and was met with her aunt's usual greeting— "Wherever have you been, you good-for-nothin' girl? And my parcel ready and waitin' this last hour, and the fire nearly out, and the kettle not near boiling!" "I've been out with h'Arthur. I'll make up the fire in a second!"