"Why?"
"Why, what's the use? Two and sixpence! And ninety pounds! Think of the difference. The person who gave ninety pounds could easily have given another half-crown. And I dare say his ninety pounds were nothing to him, and my two-and-six pence was a great deal to me."
"I don't see why you should suppose his ninety pounds to be nothing to him. It may be just as much to him as your half-crown was to you. If not—that would only mean that in one sense your gift was the larger of the two."
"Millie!"
"I mean it really. Did you not understand the Vicar when he preached about the widow's mites? Her gift was actually more than what the rich men gave."
"Now, Mildred! More in a sort of way, I suppose, but not really more."
"I mean what I say. The way God looks upon a thing is the real way, and our way of looking is often wrong. Which do you suppose is most, the half of a thing or the whole of a thing?"
"The whole, of course. At least—well, of course half-a-sovereign is more than a whole five-shilling piece."
"Ah, but that is the wrong way of measuring. It isn't the question, how much a sum of money will buy, but, how much it is out of what a man has. The half of what a man has is always less than the whole of what a man has. If one man has a hundred pounds, and gives ten pounds out of it, then he gives one-tenth of what he has, and he keeps nine-tenths. And if another man has one pound and gives one pound, then he gives his all and keeps nothing for himself. Don't you see? The ten pounds is more in man's sight, but the one pound may be more in God's sight. It is a very simple sum, if one takes it in the right way. I'm not talking now about one's reasons for giving. Only God can know what they are, and we have no business to judge one another's motives."
"But one pound isn't more than ten pounds!"