Produced by MWS, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) _THE ROMANCE OF A SHOP._ [Illustration: Logo] THE ROMANCE OF A SHOP. BY AMY LEVY. BOSTON CUPPLES AND HURD The Algonquin Press 1889 [Illustration: Decoration] CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE IN THE BEGINNING 1 CHAPTER II. FRIENDS IN NEED 16 CHAPTER III. WAYS AND MEANS 36 CHAPTER IV. NUMBER TWENTY B. 47 CHAPTER V. THIS WORKING-DAY WORLD 65 CHAPTER VI. TO THE RESCUE 77 CHAPTER VII. A NEW CUSTOMER 93 CHAPTER VIII. A DISTINGUISHED PERSON 108 CHAPTER IX. SHOW SUNDAY 125 CHAPTER X. SUMMING UP 142 CHAPTER XI. A CONFIDENCE 159 CHAPTER XII. GERTRUDE IS ANXIOUS 170 CHAPTER XIII. A ROMANCE 181 CHAPTER XIV. LUCY 190 CHAPTER XV. CRESSIDA 203 CHAPTER XVI. A WEDDING 216 CHAPTER XVII. A SPECIAL EDITION 225 CHAPTER XVIII. PHYLLIS 236 CHAPTER XIX. THE SYCAMORES 246 CHAPTER XX. IN THE SICK-ROOM 257 CHAPTER XXI. THE LAST ACT 266 CHAPTER XXII. HOPE AND A FRIEND 272 CHAPTER XXIII. A DISMISSAL 281 CHAPTER XXIV. AT LAST 289 EPILOGUE 298 [Illustration: Decoration] THE ROMANCE OF A SHOP. CHAPTER I. IN THE BEGINNING. _Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud; Turn thy wild wheel through sunshine, storm, and cloud; Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate._ TENNYSON. There stood on Campden Hill a large, dun-coloured house, enclosed by a walled-in garden of several acres in extent. It belonged to no particular order of architecture, and was more suggestive of comfort than of splendour, with its great windows, and rambling, nondescript proportions. On one side, built out from the house itself, was a big glass structure, originally designed for a conservatory. On the April morning of which I write, the whole place wore a dejected and dismantled appearance; while in the windows and on the outer wall of the garden were fixed black and white posters, announcing a sale of effects to take place on that day week. The air of desolation which hung about the house had communicated itself in some vague manner to the garden, where the trees were bright with blossom, or misty with the tender green of the young leaves. Perhaps the effect of sadness was produced, or at least heightened, by the pathetic figure that paced slowly up and down the gravel path immediately before the house; the figure of a young woman, slight, not tall, bare-headed, and clothed in deep mourning.