She went to the cupboard and took down the beloved jug . `` I never thought to part with it , '' she said wistfully , `` but Sylvia must have a dress , and there is no other way . And , after all , when I 'm gone , who would there be to have it ? Strangers would get it then -- it might as well go to them now . I 'll have to go to town to-morrow morning , for there 's no time to lose if the party is Friday night . I have n't been to town for ten years . I dread the thought of going , more than parting with the jug . But for Sylvia 's sake ! '' It was all over Spencervale by the next morning that Old Lady Lloyd had gone to town , carrying a carefully guarded box . Everybody wondered why she went ; most people supposed she had become too frightened to keep her money in a black box below her bed , when there had been two burglaries over at Carmody , and had taken it to the bank . The Old Lady sought out the address of the china collector , trembling with fear that she might be dead or gone . But the collector was there , very much alive , and as keenly anxious to possess the grape jug as ever . The Old Lady , pallid with the pain of her trampled pride , sold the grape jug and went away , believing that her great-grandmother must have turned over in her grave at the moment of the transaction . Old Lady Lloyd felt like a traitor to her traditions . But she went unflinchingly to a big store and , guided by that special Providence which looks after simple-minded old souls in their dangerous excursions into the world , found a sympathetic clerk who knew just what she wanted and got it for her . The Old Lady selected a very dainty muslin gown , with gloves and slippers in keeping ; and she ordered it sent at once , expressage prepaid , to Miss Sylvia Gray , in care of William Spencer , Spencervale . Then she paid down the money -- the whole price of the jug , minus a dollar and a half for railroad fare -- with a grand , careless air and departed . As she marched erectly down the aisle of the store , she encountered a sleek , portly , prosperous man coming in . As their eyes met , the man started and his bland face flushed crimson ; he lifted his hat and bowed confusedly . But the Old Lady looked through him as if he was n't there , and passed on with not a sign of recognition about her .
He XXXXX one step after her , then stopped and turned away , with a rather disagreeable smile and a shrug of his shoulders .
believing bowed coming found going keeping possess prepaid supposed took