"I wouldn't take 'em," the girl said rising, "you know I wouldn't, Jack; you know I never take presents from you."
"I know, lass, I know. We'll suppose you wouldn't take it, but you wouldn't be angered, would you?"
"I should be angered that you had spent money foolishly," the girl said after a pause, "when you knew I shouldn't take it, but I couldn't be angered any other way."
"Well, but if I were to buy you a hat and a jacket and a gown."
"You dare not," the girl said passionately, her face flushed scarlet; "you dare not, Jack."
"No," Jack said consciously, "I know I dare not, though I should like to; but why don't I dare?"
"Because it would be an insult, a gross insult, Jack, and you dare not insult me."
"No lass, I darena; but why should it be an insult? that's what I canna make out; why wouldn't it be an insult to offer you a gold brooch worth three or four pounds, and yet be an insult to offer you the other things? what's the difference?"
Nelly had calmed down now when she saw that the question was a hypothetical one, and that Jack had not, as she at first supposed, bought clothes for her.
She thought for some time. "I suppose, Jack, the difference is this. It's the duty of a girl's father and mother to buy fit clothes for her, and if they don't it's either their fault, or it's because they are too poor. So to give clothes is an interference and a sort of reproach. A brooch is not necessary; it's a pretty ornament, and so a lad may give it to his lass wi'out shame."