"Well, so be it," he said. "At any rate, I am happy to have such a good and generous niece, who does love her uncle a bit. Is it not so, Paula?"
"There's one more thing," I cried. I wanted to see the effect on Teresa of that final package, which Paula handed over immediately to the old servant, saying gently, "It's for you, Teresa dear."
"What's this? How is it for me? When I strictly forbade you? But there you are! What can one do with such a girl?"
The apron was found to be eminently satisfactory, and Teresa promised to put it on the first thing in the morning, and I could see a few tears in her eyes as she said so.
"And now," said my father, "you've shown us all these things which you have bought us with your five francs. Where is the present for yourself?"
Paula looked at us all with dismay.
"I declare," she said, "I forgot! Never mind, I can buy something tomorrow." And she held up a few small coins which was all that remained of her five-franc-piece.
My father looked at her searchingly, with that new tenderness which I had seen frequently lately, and then left the room without another word.
"I believe," said Rosa, "that she'd be happy to give us her last piece of bread if there was occasion for it"
"Yes, and her life also, if that was necessary," said Teresa in a shaky voice, as she turned back to her duties in the kitchen.