"Legal?" said Paul. "If so, I might help you.
"Moral rather."
"Oh, then it's a case for the man who lives in the hearts of his people. Shall I call him?"
"You are not keeping the peace. For want of a better adviser I'll put my difficulty before you."
"And I will give you my opinion for what it is worth; you need not act on it unless you like."
"Oh no, I shan't. Should you think it right for me to put my name down on this subscription list when I owe, I'm afraid to say how much, to my dressmaker?"
"At the risk of being told again that I'm truthfully disagreeable, I answer emphatically, No! I should call it a most immoral act."
"Well, I'm going to do it anyway, and the person who has influenced me is yourself. You implied that I was unwilling to pay for my convictions; and my dressmaker must wait."
And May dipped her pen in the ink and wrote her name boldly under her mother's.
"Don't do it!" pleaded Paul, hurriedly. "Can't you see that the dressmaker, who earns her money so hardly, and waits for it so long, has the first right to yours?"