`` They 're great swells and everybody will be got up regardless . Mrs. Spencer was telling me about it . She says Miss Gray ca n't afford a new dress because she 's helping to pay her aunt 's doctor 's bills . She says she 's sure Miss Gray feels awful disappointed over it , though she does n't let on . But Mrs. Spencer says she knows she was crying after she went to bed last night . '' The Old Lady turned and went into the house abruptly . This was dreadful . Sylvia must go to that party -- she MUST . But how was it to be managed ? Through the Old Lady 's brain passed wild thoughts of her mother 's silk dresses . But none of them would be suitable , even if there were time to make one over . Never had the Old Lady so bitterly regretted her vanished wealth . `` I 've only two dollars in the house , '' she said , `` and I 've got to live on that till the next day the egg pedlar comes round . Is there anything I can sell -- ANYTHING ? Yes , yes , the grape jug ! '' Up to this time , the Old Lady would as soon have thought of trying to sell her head as the grape jug . The grape jug was two hundred years old and had been in the Lloyd family ever since it was a jug at all . It was a big , pot-bellied affair , festooned with pink-gilt grapes , and with a verse of poetry printed on one side , and it had been given as a wedding present to the Old Lady 's great-grandmother . As long as the Old Lady could remember it had sat on the top shelf in the cupboard in the sitting-room wall , far too precious ever to be used . Two years before , a woman who collected old china had explored Spencervale , and , getting word of the grape jug , had boldly invaded the old Lloyd place and offered to buy it .
She never , XXXXX her dying day , forgot the reception the Old Lady gave her ; but , being wise in her day and generation , she left her card , saying that if Miss Lloyd ever changed her mind about selling the jug , she would find that she , the aforesaid collector , had not changed hers about buying it .
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