She did not in the least understand why he flung the five-cent piece upon the table, and, snatching her in his arms, held her fast and hid his face on her plaid shawl and sobbed. Nor did she seem to know what could be the reason that nobody seemed amused to see this gentleman cry.
The gentleman who had given her the money came up, and some more came up, and they gathered around, and she in the midst of them, and they all spoke kindly, and the young man with the bad face that might have been so beautiful stood up, still clinging to her, and said aloud:
"She's shamed me before you all, and she's shamed me to myself! I'll learn a lesson from this beggar, so help me God!"
So then he took the child upon his knee, and the gentlemen came up to listen, and the young man asked her what her name was.
"Mary Elizabeth, sir."
"Names used to mean things—in the Bible—when I was as little as you. I read the Bible then. Does Mary Elizabeth mean angel of rebuke?"
"Sir?"
"Where do you live, Mary Elizabeth?"
"Nowhere, sir."
"Where do you sleep?"