He shook his head; then tore the envelope. As he read his face darkened. His wife waited.
“What is it?”
He stared angrily at the paper. “It’s—insult,” he said. “Read it.”
She took it from him and the man went and stood with his head against the mantel, his face in his folded arms. She read, and waited a long minute, considering. “I can’t see it that way.”
He whirled about. “You can’t see it as an insult that some man should want to pay my way? As if I were a pauper?”
The woman considered again. “We’re not paupers, but we’re—poor. This man must be rich. He must be fond of you to want you there. He must have a feeling for other people’s feelings, because he keeps back his name so that you won’t have any burden of gratitude. That’s fine-grained and delicate of him.” She looked again at the letter. “The secretary, Mr. Price, says that no one but he himself and the man himself will ever know.” She waited a moment, tense, biting her lip, thinking hard. Then: “I want you to go, John,” she broke out beseechingly.
“Go?” He looked at her in amazement. “Go? On charity?”
“Not charity, friendship,” she insisted. “Think about it. You care a lot for your class; suppose you had plenty of money and heard that one of them had none—wouldn’t you be eager to do this very thing? Could you do it in a kinder way? Wouldn’t you think it selfish of him to refuse you the joy of doing that? Isn’t it as big to take generously as to give generously? He has a chance to give you money and he’s taking it; you have a chance to give him pleasure and you’re— Don’t refuse it, John,” she pleaded.
“Why, Margaret,” he answered wondering, “what has got into you? You’re so proud, so independent; more than I. However poor we’ve been, I’ve known that you preferred it to letting any one, your cousin for instance, help us. You sent back his check. And you’re asking me to accept money from a man whose name we don’t know.”
“Ah, but I know he’s heavenly, or he wouldn’t have done it like this,” she threw back. “And not knowing the name helps. It’s as if an angel had flown down with manna. It would be silly to refuse manna. And, John,” she went on eagerly, “there’s possibility in it. When they heard about your airship—”