“But, Matilda, your thimble is only mislaid; it will be found I am sure. I saw it on your finger yesterday.”
“But you did not see it to-day, Selina, and I tell you it is quite lost; I looked a long time for it.”
“But do consider, Matilda,” Selina said, very gently; “to buy this work-box will require almost all the money you have. Only twopence will remain.”
Matilda coloured. Only twopence. She seemed to hesitate, and pushed the box a little way from her; but suddenly brightening up, and drawing it towards her again, she said, “Selina, you quite forget the money I am now quite sure of making, for I dare say I have now near a hundred flowers, which I know quite well will be beautiful.”
“But you cannot be sure, Matilda, that you will be able to make money in that way.”
“And why should I not be sure? You are so prudent, Selina, that it just provokes me. Why should I not be able to make money as well as Leila, if my flowers are beautiful? I am sure I have taken trouble enough with them, and patience too; you might praise me, I think, a little for that, instead of wishing to take all my pleasures from me in this way; and it is such a useful thing to buy, and when I tell you too that I have lost my thimble; but don’t say any more about it, for I am determined to buy it. It is not as if I were buying a foolish thing; this box will be most useful to me.” She took it up as she spoke, and moved to another corner of the shop.
The work-box was soon carefully wrapped up in paper and paid for, and they all proceeded on their way. Having executed several other commissions, Nurse proposed that they should rest for a little in a baker’s shop, where each might have a bunn, as the hour of luncheon would have passed before they could return home. This they all thought an excellent plan.
They were soon seated and enjoying their bunns, and Matilda had just declared that she meant to be prudent now, and though she was very hungry indeed, she would only allow herself one bunn, and would keep the other penny in case of accidents, when a little girl, carrying a basket tied over with a napkin, entered the shop. She looked very pale and thin, and her clothes, though neither dirty nor ragged, were scanty and much patched. As the baker was at the moment serving a customer, she rested the basket on the ground as if much fatigued, and stood silently waiting by the counter. A broken piece of roll lay upon it. She gathered up a few stray crumbs, which she put in her mouth, and they saw her then stretch out her thin little hand as if to take the roll also, but she did not; on the contrary, she pushed it further from her and turned away. The baker seemed to have perceived the action, for he said, pushing it towards her, “You may have that piece of roll if you are hungry.”
The child’s eyes glistened, she seized the roll and began eagerly to eat it; suddenly she stopped, and looked anxiously at what remained, and put it in her pocket. By this time Leila’s attention was much excited. The child, pointing to the basket, spoke aside to the baker, who was now disengaged, but in so low a tone she could not make out what she said. The man shook his head as he replied, though also in a low tone, as if unwilling to be overheard by them, “No, no, we never buy cats; take it away; it is out of the question.”
The child spoke again, and with a look of much entreaty; Leila thought she could distinguish the words, loaf—starving.