“Here, Natale,” said Madame Cioche, judging that the interview might well be concluded, and handing the boy a small packet. “Take this to your papá, and tell him that the ladies and gentlemen in my house have heard of the loss of the money, and are sending him thirty-five francs as a little present. Can you carry it safely?”
Again Natale’s sweet smile broke over his face, but he only nodded happily in reply, tucking the money away in the bosom of his blouse.
“Ask him how long they are going to stay,” Mrs. Bishop called after Madame Cioche, who was going to the gate with Natale.
“He says that the sindaco—the mayor—has offered them the use of the field for another week,” Madame Cioche said, her eyes glowing, as she returned to the hall. “I am glad of that, as the poor creatures will need all they can make here, now.”
“I call it a sort of punishment, their losing the money when playing on Sunday,” Mrs. Bishop said severely, and one or two other English ladies nodded their approval of this speech. “And I think the whole business wrong and that it ought to be discouraged. I was not at all sure about the propriety of giving my francs to your little collection, Mrs. Choky.”
“Would it have been more Christian to have let them suffer, perhaps for food, and the poor beasts too?” the hostess asked, pausing on her way through the hall.
“But surely you think circusing wrong and unchristian?” the disputative old lady exclaimed.
“Aunty, do be quiet,” cried Betty warmly. “I am sure you ought not to dispute ‘on Sunday’! Besides,” she added, as everybody laughed, and two or three softly applauded, “they make their living that way, and we cannot change them into farmers, or preachers. But I think it is always wrong not to help honest people who are in trouble.”
“If they are honest,” Mrs. Bishop remonstrated, but under her breath, this time, for Madame Cioche’s eyes were sparkling, and she seemed waiting to speak.
“Those poor creatures down there deserve nothing but praise,” she said stoutly; “they are quiet folks, who teach their children obedience and keep themselves remarkably clean and mended. If they make their living in a way we do not approve, we cannot change them, as Miss Betty says, but we can feed them when they are hungry, and that seems to me not ‘unchristian’!”