Elinor blushed. "But—but—my little girl tells me—" She stumbled on, awkwardly, and abashed by her awkwardness. "I think by accident she overheard that—that—you had some trouble. Do you think you're right to refuse? Wouldn't your wife feel—" 50
"She would feel as I do. I can always be sure of her." Paul Valois lifted his head with a radiant look; and Elinor Odell, gazing at him, fascinated, suddenly realized something Christ-like in his type. With that light in his eyes he might have stood as a model to an artist for a portrait of Christ. Elinor wondered how she had dared to offer such a man money. She felt humble before him, and asked herself how, since he would accept no payment, she could atone for the mean way in which she had misjudged him.
"We didn't know that the fairy heard what we said to each other," he went on. "My children call the palm under which she sat their 'summer-house,' because the long fronds fall down and touch the ground. It is like a green tent. But I am sorry if she felt sad for us. Tell her she must not be sad. We have each other, and that is everything. Some way will open. Meanwhile, it is Christmas! Now, Madame, you understand, I have left my children's tree unfinished. I must make haste. Adieu. Bonne Nolë."
Before she could speak again, he was gone. 51
Five hundred francs! How mean the notes looked, how paltry seemed the spirit in which she had offered it, grudging and judging, and thinking herself generous!
Springing up on the impulse, she flung open the door between the sitting-room and Angela's bedroom. "Your man from the fairy garden has been here," she said in a strained, nervous way. "He has brought back the ring you tied to the kitten's neck."
"Oh, isn't that too bad!" exclaimed Angel, looking up from her grandfather's letter, which she had held in her own hands for Mademoiselle to read aloud. "Didn't you beg him please to keep it for the children?"
"No, I didn't do that, but—" she hesitated—"I tried to make him take some money instead."
Angel opened her eyes very wide. "I s'pose he wouldn't take it, Mummy."
"Why do you 's'pose' that?" Elinor wanted to know.