"The thanks of the poor are excellent things to have, but I think I'd rather receive them by proxy. Will you kindly spend this for me in making that poor soul comfortable?"
But Belle wouldn't take what he offered her; she put it back, saying earnestly,—
"Give it yourself; one can't buy blessings,—they must be earned or they are not worth having. Try it, please, and, if you find it a failure, then I'll gladly be your almoner."
There was a significance in her words which he could not fail to understand. He neither shrugged, drawled, nor sauntered now, but gave her a look in which respect and self-reproach were mingled, and left her, simply saying, "I'll try it, Miss Morgan."
"Now isn't she odd?" whispered Kate to her brother, as Belle appeared at a little dance at Mrs. Plantagenet's in a high-necked dress, knitting away on an army-sock, as she greeted the friends who crowded round her.
"Charmingly so. Why don't you do that sort of thing when you can?" answered her brother, glancing at her thin, bare shoulders, and hands rendered nearly useless by the tightness of the gloves.
"Gracious, no! It's natural to her to do so, and she carries it off well; I couldn't, therefore I don't try, though I admire it in her. Go and ask her to dance, before she is engaged."
"She doesn't dance round dances, you know."
"She is dreadfully prim about some things, and so free and easy about others: I can't understand it, do you?"
"Well, yes, I think I do. Here's Forbes coming for you, I'll go and entertain Belle by a quarrel."