“Next year you sall rival me,” she said, laying a brown hand on Margaret’s shoulder. “But nefer fear—zere ees room for bof in zis world. We nezair of us grow reech, c’est vrai; but we lif and zat ees somesing. Ah, Gilbeart, you lose von goot foot zere. Now put it zis way and see your frame couvair so mooch more ground. Eet ees ze inch saved zat makes ze foot gained in ze market garden. See! Can you find von inch to spare in zat leetle space of mine? Eet all yields, and yet Lizzette Minaud ees une très pauvre femme.”
“Poverty is a relative term, you know. Enough to eat, to wear, and to grow on are all that any one needs. It is in the enough, however, that lies the division of opinion,” said Margaret as she helped Gilbert adjust the frame to Lizzette’s satisfaction.
“Zat ees true; but as ze world look at us we haf very leetle.”
“But if we have contentment therewith, we have everything,” answered Margaret. At this juncture Elsie, who had wheeled Antoine into the path beside her sister, broke out impetuously:
“Margaret Murchison, do you mean to say that you are perfectly contented? I don’t believe one word of it. You are not contented, for if you were you wouldn’t be striving with might and main to earn the wherewithal to make a gentleman of Gilbert and a lady of me. You’d let us remain clodhoppers to the end of our days. It is all nonsense to preach contentment when your actions give the lie to your words.”
Margaret glanced up quickly at the vehement assertion.
“There is a difference between the contentment that has only stagnation in it, and that which is satisfied to grow under the conditions which environ it until the time ripens for wider growth and leafage. If I am contented it is because I am willing to work step by step and inch by inch as the way unfolds. There is only disaster in trying to reach the height at a single bound. Order is subverted and reason impeded in such attempts.”
“My wise sister, put on my harness and teach me to trot soberly by your side. I do so want to jump the gates for a wild run, and forget harness, duty, and all the unpleasant things of life. Antoine and I have been trying to be birds this morning.”
“You didn’t succeed, I conclude.”
“Well, no; at least I didn’t. Wings will never grow for me, but Antoine is going to rival the birds some day. See here! I found this among the rubbish in father’s study, and Gilbert when next he goes to the city shall get the strings, and when Antoine has learned to mirror his soul in music I’ll——”