Mr. Dugdale, much puzzled, pushed up his hair until it stood right aloft on his forehead. Soon a dawn of satisfaction reappeared. “All against us? Dear me, no! They would be pleased to see their poor neighbours helped on in the world, as you or I would, you know. They'd side at once with Trenchard and Free-trade. Come now, Nathanael, you'll assist? By the way, somebody told me you were very rich—or at least that your wife was an heiress. She looks a kind little soul She'll put her name down under Anne Valery's here?”
And he turned to Agatha with that air of frank goodness by which Marmaduke Dugdale could coax everybody round to his own ends.
“Ay, that we will, though I suppose I am not so rich as Miss Valery. Still, we have enough to help poor people—have we not?”
She appealed gaily to Mr. Harper, but he replied nothing. She persisted:
“We need not give much, since Mr. Trenchard and Miss Valery are both on the list before us. We'll give—let me see—fifty pounds. Ah, now, just go up-stairs and fetch me down fifty pounds!” said she, hanging caressingly on her husband's arm.
He looked down on her, and looked away. He had become very grave. “We will talk of this some other time, dear.”
“But another time will not do. I want it now. I fear,” she whispered, blushing—“I fear, before I married, I was very thoughtless and selfish. I would like to cure myself, and spend my money usefully, as Anne Valery does. Charity is such a luxury.”
“Too dear a luxury for every one,” said Nathanael sighing.
She looked up, scarcely believing him to be in earnest. Her open-hearted, open-handed nature was much hurt. She said, with a bitter meaning:
“I did not know I had such a very prudent husband.”