these were situated in Broad Street hardly a stone’s throw from the Second Market.  But none of these, excellent as they were, could bear comparison with the refined atmosphere, so different from the vulgar bustle of a modern department store, which enveloped one in the quiet gloom of Brandywine & Plummer’s.  In the first place, one could be perfectly sure that one would be waited on by a lady—­for Brandywine & Plummer’s, with a distinguished Confederate soldier at its head and front, provided an almost conventual shelter for distressed feminine gentility.  There was, for instance, Miss Marye of the black silk counter, whose father had belonged to Stuart’s cavalry and had fallen at Yellow Tavern; there was Miss Meason of the glove counter, and there was Mrs. Burwell Smith of the ribbon counter—­for, though she had married beneath her, it was impossible to forget that she was a direct descendant of Colonel Micajah Burwell, of Crow’s Nest Plantation.

Then, if one happened to be in search of cotton goods, one would be almost certain to remark on the way home:  “Miss Peters, who waited on me in Brandywine’s this morning, has unmistakably the manner of a lady,” or “that Mrs. Jones in Brandywine’s must be related to the real Joneses, she has such a refined appearance.”  And, at last, in the middle ’nineties, after the opening of the new millinery department, which was reached by a short flight of steps, decorated at discreet intervals with baskets of pink paper roses, customers were beginning to ask:  “May I speak to Miss Gabriella for a minute?  I wish to speak to Miss Gabriella about the hat she is having trimmed for me.”

For here, also, because of what poor Jane called her “practical mind,” the patrons of Brandywine & Plummer’s were learning that Gabriella was “the sort you could count on.”  As far as the actual work went, she could not, of course, hold a candle (this was Mr. Plummer’s way of putting it) to Miss Kemp or Miss Treadway, who had a decided talent for trimming; but no customer in balloon sleeves and bell-shaped skirt was ever heard to remark of these young women as they remarked of Gabriella, “No, I don’t want anybody else, please.  She takes such an interest.”  To take an interest in other people might become quite as marketable an asset, Mr. Plummer was discovering, after fifty years of adherence to strictly business methods, as a gift for the needle; and, added to her engaging interest, Gabriella appeared to know by instinct exactly what a customer wanted.

“I declare Miss Kemp had almost persuaded me to take that brown straw with the green velvet bandeau before I thought of asking Gabriella’s advice,” Mrs. Spencer was overheard saying to her daughter, as she paused, panting and breathless, at the head of the short flight of steps.

“Oh, Gabriella always had taste; I’ll ask her about mine,” Florrie tossed back gaily in the high fluting notes which expressed so perfectly the brilliant, if slightly metallic, quality of her personality.