Elsie laughed, but Carrie turned from her coldly. She set her heart on managing the glove matter, and it was ignominious to fail.
[CHAPTER III.]
THIS is but a faint specimen of the ways in which temptation assailed the fair hands in whose stewardship two gold pieces had been placed. It seemed to Elsie a curious coincidence that the first temptation should have to do with a covering for those hands. But for that she might not have gotten through so well.
It was wonderful, the number of articles that Carrie found which she was sure her Cousin Elsie needed and ought to purchase; delicate laces of a peculiarly rare and choice pattern that might not be found again; soft, fluffy ruches particularly becoming to Elsie's face; fine handkerchiefs, delicately embroidered, sold at a bargain; a peculiar perfume, the like of which had never been smelled before; even scented soaps joined hands with Elsie's companions that day and tried to beguile her; yet she stood firm.
It was a curious experience. Could she have divested herself of personal feeling, and looked on as an outsider, she would have enjoyed the study. There was absolutely nothing presented which stood the test. His hands, they must make no purchase save such as would please their Master.
"I cannot think what is the matter with you!" Carrie said, watching her cousin curiously. "You used to be ready enough to buy pretty things. I've seen at least a hundred and fifty articles this morning that I should have bought if I had as much spending money as you have. Papa keeps me dreadfully close these days; everything has to be saved for Emmeline. I tell papa just to wait until I get engaged, and I'll be revenged. It can't be that you are saving up for that, Elsie; you are not out of school yet."
Through it all Ben watched with amused face, not helping his cousin in the least; on the contrary, he made several wise suggestions as to the utility of some of the temptations.
"It is worse than cigars, isn't it?" he queried at last, his wicked eyes dancing mischievously. Elsie felt that he was amusing himself at her expense—turning her scruples into ridicule. Would it not be better to lay aside her new ideas, and change the current of his thoughts by disposing of the spending money that seemed to be the cause of so much trouble? Wasn't it a sort of "casting pearls before—" and here she paused; partly because she did not like to apply the simile, and partly because her brain was too keen to admit of such reasoning. If Ben chose to be led into sin through her conscientious effort to do right, he must bear the blame of it.
But she was to be tried in a way that was harder to bear. Carrie, positively vexed because she could not persuade her cousin into buying, at the jewel counter, a lovely little charm for her chain, turned from her and spoke to Ben in a very poor undertone: "I don't understand Elsie. I'm afraid she is growing penurious, and that is really a more hateful fault in a girl than in a boy. She used to be so free and generous with her money."
"Perhaps Uncle Wells keeps her close," was Ben's hateful suggestion. "He is well off, to be sure, but he may not be growing liberal as he grows older."