"`If you won't take it one way, you shall another,' I muttered, as I seemed to recover myself a bit; for I could see that she looked more pinched and haggard than at the last visit. So I took up the books, turned them over, examined the binding, the title-pages, the _finis_, put them down and took a pinch of snuff--every moment growing more confident, and chuckling to myself as I thought of what I meant to do. I shook my head at one volume, as I began to go over them again; screwed up my mouth at another; made a wry face at a third; and pitched a fourth contemptuously aside, watching her out of the corner of my eye the while; and I could see her face working, and a tear drop down upon her dress. "`Weak, poor soul,' I muttered; and I went on turning the books over, and keeping her on the rack, expecting every moment that she would speak. Then I muttered something about the date and edition, laid them all together, and held them up to examine the backs; and once more laid them on the counter, and took snuff, with my under lip thrust out, shaking my head the while. "`Perhaps I could bring you some other books that would be more saleable,' she said, at last; and I could hardly keep up my acting as I listened to the poor child's trembling voice, and watched her quivering lips. "`They're saleable enough,' I said, `at a price, though--at a price;' and I stared at her very hard. "`I only want what you consider to be the value of them,' she answered sadly, `I--' "She stopped short, having evidently been about to say something of which she repented. "`Well,' I said coolly, `I'm afraid that I can't give you more than a couple of pounds for them,' and I pushed them across the counter, as if expecting her to snatch them away and hurry out of the shop. "`Two--two pounds,' she stammered, and then her eyes rested upon me so pitifully, that if I had not had spectacles on, I could not have kept up my character. But I kept on looking her full in the face, seeing her flush a little as if resenting what I said, then turn paler than before, as she seemed to be unable to comprehend whether I was in earnest, or merely seeking an excuse for helping her. In a few moments she appeared to decide that the latter was the case, and drawing herself up proudly, she took the books, but only to clutch the next moment at the counter, as the place swam before her eyes, and I had hardly time to open the flap and catch her in my arms before she had fainted dead away. "I carried her into my little back room and laid her upon the sofa there, with bookshelves all around, and my wife bathed her poor pale face, and chafed her hands till she gave two or three sighs, and her eyes began slowly to open, and she gazed up at the ceiling in a strange vacant way, till her gaze fell upon our withered old faces, when catching my hands in hers, she kissed them and began to sob bitterly.