"I don't want to interrupt her," said Norton. "It is as good as a book."
"What is it, my love?"
Matilda slipped off her cushion and kneeling on the rug, with her hands still on Mrs. Laval's lap, looked off into the fire.
"The Bible says"—she began and checked herself. The Bible was not such authority there. "I was only thinking—Ma'am, you know how many poor people there are in the world?"
"Yes, dear."
"She doesn't," said Norton.
"People that have no overcoats at all, nor under coats neither, some of them. I was thinking—if all the people who have plenty, would give half to the people who have nothing, there would be nobody cold or miserable; I mean, miserable from that."
"Yes, there would, my darling," said Mrs. Laval. "People who are idle and wicked, and won't work and do not take care of what they have, they would be poor if we were to give them, not half but three quarters, of all we have. It would be all gone in a week or two; or a month or two."
Matilda looked at Mrs. Laval. "But the poor people are not always wicked?"
"Very often. Industrious and honest people need never suffer."