"She don't mention me!" exclaimed Judy. "Either I'm so good I'm safe; or I'm so bad it's no use trying to take care of me. You poor boys, she will try to take care of you. What impertinence!"
"No more than if you did it, Judy, come, now!" said Norton. "It's no such thing; it's only nonsense. Now Pink, don't be nonsensical!"
"We can do it without her being in the affair, if she doesn't like it," said David. "But I do not understand," he went on, addressing himself to Matilda. "Giving a present isn't drinking wine, is it?"
"No," said Matilda, who by this time could hardly speak at all. "But Mr. David, it is helping somebody else to drink."
"Do you think what you do would help or hinder?"
"What you do might."
"We shall go on just the same, whatever way you take. What difference can it make, whether your money is in it or not?"
"I don't know," said Matilda struggling;—"none, perhaps, whether my money is in it. But my name would be in it."
"Do you think that would make any difference?—stop, Norton, I want to understand what she will say. What would your name do, in it or out of it?"
"Ridiculous! to spend time talking to her!" said Judy. "That is just what she wants."