“Then if I said so I must keep my word,” replied Miss Emily. “It is a very pretty piece of ribbon. What do you intend to do with it?”
Betsy paused before she answered: “Elizabeth showed me a very nice thread and needle case; I thought I would like to make one for Christmas.”
“Whom would you give it to? It is such a very handsome piece of ribbon you should not waste it on merely anyone.”
“I thought I would give it to Miss Jewett.”
“What about the scent bag? I thought you had decided upon that and that Elizabeth was to share her gathered sweets with you.”
Betsy was silent before she said: “That was Elizabeth’s own idea and I think she ought to be allowed to keep it.”
Miss Emily smiled approbation. “In that case, as a reward for your generosity in giving up the more personal and original gift, I must certainly allow you to have the ribbon.”
Betsy walked away feeling ashamed instead of happy at receiving approval for something which she knew she did not quite deserve. She laid the ribbon carefully away but she did not forget it.
Whether it was the commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” whether it was a sermon upon the subject of petty deceits or whether it was her own tender conscience is not certain, but there was a reason somewhere which made Betsy very miserable all the next day, not that her excuse in keeping the ribbon was not a perfectly proper one, but because she had pretended to a different motive from the real one, and she knew she had received praise where no praise was due. She wished she had never seen the ribbon; she wished thread and needle cases had never been invented; she almost wished there were no Christmas.