"You were right, Cecille, in not taking it. Better even weep as you have done to-day for an ungratified wish, than borrow money and perhaps be disappointed in your expectation of repaying it."
"I shall not be disappointed in that, grandmamma, for Clara says she will certainly pay me the next week."
"Clara no doubt once thought, my dear, that she would certainly pay you to-day. She may be mistaken again."
"Clara was very sorry, grandmamma," said Cecille kindly.
"I do not doubt it, my dear. She is, I dare say, a good little girl and means well, but she is thoughtless, or she would not have spent her money even on a present for Mrs. Wilmot before she had paid her debts. What she owed to you was in truth not her own, but yours."
"Grandmamma, don't be angry with Clara. You could not help loving her if you knew her, she is so generous."
"I am not angry with her, my dear. I do love her for her kindness to you, and from many things you have told me, I believe she is generous, but, Cecille, she is not just."
"That locket cost a great deal, I dare say, grandmamma, and then Clara gives something to everybody that asks for money. She is so generous."
"Generous but not just, Cecille, when she gives what she already owes to another."
I saw that Cecille was hardly satisfied with her grandmother's views of Clara, and yet they were so true that she could not oppose them.