“Lose the money!” So that was the way she regarded it! A strange sort of benevolence surely!
“Take heed, therefore, that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.” This was Mr. Lee’s text next day.
“Oh, that means me,” groaned Mary inwardly. “I’ve been seen of Mrs. Lee, and I’ve been seen of Blanche and Fanny and the other girls; and that’s just what I did it for, and not for the people in China! Oh, dear! oh, dear! to think what a humbug I am!”
CHAPTER VI.
OLD BLUFF.
And now we come to an episode of the highest importance to five young misses of Laurel Grove. General Townsend owned an unoccupied house about two miles from town, at the foot of a steep hill called Old Bluff; and it had occurred to the active mind of Mary Gray that this would be a fine place for “camping out.”
It was April when she hinted this to Fanny Townsend, but it was May before Fanny spoke of it to her father.
“I’m waiting till some time when you come to my house to tea, Dandelina; and we mustn’t get to laughing, now you remember.”