"But, what?" she eagerly demanded.
"My father—I thought of him, and—"
"Would not."
"I cannot desert him to suffering and want."
"And is this all?" she asked, her face lighting up with a newly awakened thought.
"The sole cause."
She began eagerly to search her belt, and drew forth from it a heavy purse. Shaking it with a gratified air, she then poured its glittering contents on the ground beside her.
"See that pile of gold! To-morrow go in this king's ship, and it shall be yours—there are three hundred guilders told—'twill give the old man food and raiment for a longer life than his will be, and afterward buy a coffin for his bones. Wilt go?"
"Mother," said he, his heart leaping with joy and hope, yet both tempered with the doubt to which he gave utterance, "this wealth! is it thine? How came you by it?"
"It matters not."