“And therefore you were meditating a pension to the first beggar that came in your way. My dear child! you will be eaten up by beggars if you begin with this wild liberality.”
“It was not exactly—a beggar; it is not that I mean.”
“I will tell you what to do,” said Mrs. Stone, “take the names of the people who apply to you, and bring them to me. I will have the cases thoroughly sifted. We have really a very good organization for all that kind of thing in Farafield, and I promise you, Lucy, that if there is any very hard case, or circumstances which are very pitiful, even though the applicant be not quite deserving, you shall decide for yourself and give if you wish to give; but do let them be sifted first.”
Lucy said nothing; to have “cases” which should be “sifted” by Mrs. Stone, did not seem at all to correspond with her instructions; and again it was St. Clair who came to her aid.
“The holidays are very nearly over,” he said, “and we have a little problem of our own to settle. Do you know, Miss Trevor, my aunt meditates sending me away.”
“Oh!” cried Lucy, with alarm. She turned instinctively to Jock, who was roaming about the common before them. “But what should we do then?” she said, with simplicity. The guardians had not yet interfered about Jock’s training; they had left the little fellow in her hands; and Lucy was very much solaced and comforted by the arrangement in respect to her little brother which St. Clair’s delicate health had permitted her to make.
“You forget that I am a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I am a ravening lion, seeking whom I may devour. I am an enemy in the camp.”
“Is that all because he is a gentleman?” said Lucy to Mrs. Stone, with wondering eyes.
It was not Mrs. Stone who replied, but Miss Southwood, who had now come out to join them, and who had heard St. Clair’s description of himself. She nodded her head, upon which was a close “cottage bonnet” of the fashion of thirty years ago.
“Yes, yes,” she said, “it is quite out of the question, it is not to be permitted; not one of the parents would consent to it if they knew.”