For my part, I had been thinking of Grace. My readers will not have forgotten that Grace's having changed the bill she at first intended giving the blind man for a half dollar, and her contenting herself with giving her mother a bracelet of her own weaving, instead of spending money on her present, as the other girls had done, had made me fear that she might be a little selfish—that her money might be saved for some gratification that should be entirely her own. I now began to hope that Grace was not less generous, but that she was more just than Clara.
"Is not Grace generous too?" said I to Cecille.
"Is not Grace generous!" she repeated, as if surprised at my question.
"Have you ever thought that she was selfish?" I asked in yet stronger language.
"Grace selfish!" exclaimed, Cecille: "oh, no! I never saw her do a selfish thing."
"Do you think her as generous as Clara?"
"As generous as Clara," she again repeated, and then said doubtfully, "Clara is so generous."
"You do not think then that Grace takes as much pleasure in giving to another as Clara does?"
"Oh, yes! I think she does. Grace never seems so happy as when she happens to have what another person wants."
"In what then is she less generous than Clara?"