“You always say I can talk nothing else, auntie,” Dan reminded her, “and now, if mother and you will excuse me, I will hurry up and unpack my picture before going to meet Isabel; and, Aunt Lizzie, you can let me have all the bills to-morrow morning. I am as rich as a Jew!—anyway, I feel so. I have done uncommonly well, and everyone of you must have new frocks.”
“Thank you, Daniel,” said Miss Linkin freezingly; “but I pray you not to include me. I have my own income.”
Poor Miss Linkin! she possessed a pound a week, all her own, left to her by an old school friend.
“Oh! I forgot for the moment, auntie, that you were the moneyed member of the family. But anyway, you must let me give you a present.”
“Save your money, Daniel,” said Miss Linkin, with big emphasis on the verb. “Your eyes may go wrong again.”
This was too much for Dan. He fled to unpack his picture, lest he should say something he might regret.
Miss Linkin nodded at the closed door, and her corkscrew curls wobbled.
“That boy always lets his money burn holes in his pocket,” she remarked to her sister.
CHAPTER XXX
SUCH IS LOVE!
“It is too lovely for words!” cried Isabel, her eyes fixed on her brother’s picture of the Madonna.