"Look here! Take this," said Freddy, pressing into her hand, not the penny he had mentioned, but a shilling he had intended spending on himself; "you can get something nice for your brother with that, can't you?"
"How good of you!" she cried, flushing with pleasure. "Oh, thank you, thank you! I will buy some sponge cakes and some grapes—oh, surely Bobby will be able to eat grapes! But he is so dreadfully ill!" and she shook her head doubtfully, whilst her eyes filled with tears again.
"Where do you live?" Claude inquired.
"In Number Five Court, in East Street. Our name is Lambert—there's only father, and Bobby, and me; mother is dead. Father's been in hospital; why we're so poor; and now he's well again the frost has come on, and he can't work."
"Why not?"
"Because masons can't work in frosty weather—father's a mason." She turned to Freddy, and thanked him again for his shilling most gratefully; then she went into the confectioner's shop to make her purchase there, and the boys moved on.
That evening Claude asked his father if he knew anyone called Lambert, a mason, living in Number Five Court, in East Street. Dr. Dennis did not, but he listened with interest as Claude explained about the little girl to whom Freddy had given the shilling.
"It was very kind of Freddy," he said heartily; "I like to hear of spontaneous generosity."
The doctor was reclining in an easy-chair by the dining-room fire enjoying an hour's leisure, whilst Poppy, on a stool at his feet, was looking over her collection of picture postcards, which had greatly increased of late, as her uncle had sent her many from the various places he and his bride had visited during the last two months, and her mother sat by the table, engaged with some needlework. Edwin and Freddy had gone upstairs to the schoolroom to prepare their lessons for the following day; but Claude still lingered talking to his father.
"Freddy is heaps nicer than he used to be," Poppy remarked. "When he first came to us he used to want the best of everything for himself, but now he's always ready to share and share alike."