"Do you mean he stole it?" asked Nessa, in dismay.
"Yes," replied Murtagh. "At least I mean, it isn't stealing really. It couldn't be stealing, because it's only our own money; papa said we were to have it."
"Oh, Murtagh, I am so sorry you have done that!" said Nessa, greatly troubled. "It is stealing."
"It's our own money, though," said Murtagh. "Papa said we were to have one half-sovereign from Mr. Plunkett, and this will be only one; only Winnie and I thought we didn't care about spending it now any more; we thought we'd like to bury it in the island or somewhere. Then we wouldn't have submitted to him tyrannizing; but nobody could say we'd regularly—You don't think it could be real stealing, do you?" he asked, breaking off the other sentence, as though he shrank from saying the ugly sounding word.
"Yes, I do," said Nessa. "But you will give it back because, listen, Murtagh—"
"There's Winnie," said Murtagh, who was lying with his face turned to the door.
Nessa turned and saw a little barefooted white figure standing in the middle of the room. It was Winnie, who had overheard Nessa's last words.
"It can't be stealing," she said, coming up to the bedside. "I've been thinking about it ever since we went to bed, and it's our own."
"No," replied Nessa, lifting up one side of her dressing-gown for the little shivering figure to creep under. "It's not your own. You are mistaken. You are doing something that will not be honorable. Listen, I can explain it to you quite plainly. Two new shirts will cost about seven shillings and sixpence, so you gave seven and sixpence to Theresa. That is, you spent seven and sixpence, and now you have only half-a-crown. You have not got a whole half-sovereign; it would be just common stealing to take it. And then, another thing," she continued warmly, "even if it was your own, I don't think it is honorable to creep into a person's house to take something when his back is turned; it would be better to lose twenty half-sovereigns. It does not matter if a gentleman loses his rights, but it does matter very much if he stoops to get them back by deceit."
This view was new to the children. They were too firmly entrenched in their own opinion to be convinced in a moment, but their rights began somehow to seem to them small things after all. They tried to reproduce the arguments with which they had convinced themselves; but reasons, excellent before, sounded weak and empty now, and after a faint attempt to defend themselves they accepted Nessa's view.