“What for?”
“You'll be welcome to take it, and use it for Henry.”
“That ain't answering my question.”
Jerome was silent.
“You needn't answer if you don't want to,” said Paulina Maria, “for I know. You've kept it dark from everybody but Lawyer Means and your mother and Elmira, but your mother told me a year ago. I haven't told a soul. You've been saving up this money to build a mill with and—I've been over to your mother's this afternoon—you are going to start it to-morrow.”
“I am not obliged to start it to-morrow,” said Jerome.
“You're obliged to for all me. Do you think I'll take that money?”
Jerome turned to Henry. “Henry, it's for you, and not your mother,” said he. “Will you take it?”
Henry, still knitting, shook his head.
“I tell you there is no hurry about the mill. I can wait and earn more. I give it to you freely.”