"But 'a bird in the hand is worth two
in the bush;' and I would rather have had one good, hearty,
'Thank you,' now, for all I have been planning to do for her,
than the grand effects you promise me in the 'sweep of eternity.'
Don't be grave and sorrowful, Thurstan, or I'll go out of the
room. I can stand Sally's scoldings, but I can't bear your look
of quiet depression whenever I am a little hasty or impatient. I
had rather you would give me a good box on the ear."
"And I would often rather you would speak, if ever so hastily,
instead of whistling. So, if I box your ears when I am vexed with
you, will you promise to scold me when you are put out of the
way, instead of whistling?"
"Very well! that's a bargain. You box, and I scold. But,
seriously, I began to calculate our money when she so cavalierly
sent off the fifty-pound note (I can't help admiring her for
it!), and I am very much afraid we shall not have enough to pay
the doctor's bill, and take her home with us."
"She must go inside the coach, whatever we do," said Mr. Benson
decidedly.
"Who's there? Come in! Oh! Mrs. Hughes! Sit down."
"Indeed, sir, and I cannot stay; but the young lady has just made
me find up her watch for her, and asked me to get it sold to pay
the doctor, and the little things she has had since she came; and
please, sir, indeed I don't know where to sell it nearer than
Caernarvon."
"That is good of her," said Miss Benson, her sense of justice
satisfied; and, remembering the way in which Ruth had spoken of
the watch, she felt what a sacrifice it must have been to resolve
to part with it.
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