'Let us make a subscription,' said Elinor, producing half a guinea, and looking round to Mrs Maple.
Selina joined the same sum, full of glee to give, for the first time, as much as her sister.
Mrs Maple clamorously ordered them to shut the parlour door.
With shame, yet joy, the stranger accepted the two half guineas, intimated her hopes that she should soon repay them, repeated her thanks, and took leave.
The sisters would still have detained her, but Mrs Maple peremptorily insisted upon breakfasting without further delay.
The Incognita was proceeding to the housekeeper's room, for a packet of the gifts of Elinor, but she was stopt in the hall by Ireton, who was loitering about, playing with his purse, and jerking and catching it from hand to hand.
'Here, my dear,' he cried, 'look at this, and take what you will from it.'
She coldly thanked him, and, saying that the young ladies had amply supplied her, would have moved on: but he prevented her, repeating his offer, and adding, while with uncontrolled freedom he stared at her, 'How the deuce, with such a pretty face as that, could you ever think of making yourself look such a fright?'
She told him that she was in haste.
'But what was the whim of it?'