"Have you reckoned it up? Fifty or sixty half-pounds of tea, fifty or sixty pounds of sugar,--why, the sugar alone would be five or six dollars; and the tobacco, and the carriage hire; and I don't know what beside. All for nothing. That woman does not know what to do with money." "But is it not something, to make so many poor people happy, if even only for a little while?" "It would be a great deal better to give them something to do them good; a flannel petticoat, now, or a pair of warm socks. That would last. Or putting the money in the funds of the Institution, where it would go to their daily needs. I always think of that." "_Would_ it go to their daily needs? Some ladies got a cow for them once; and it just gave the matron cream for her tea, and they got no good of it." "I don't believe that at all!" exclaimed Mrs. Busby. "I know the matron; Mrs. Bothers; I know her, for I recommended her myself. I have no idea she would be guilty of any such impropriety. It is just the gossip in the house, that Mrs. Mowbray has taken up in her haste and swallowed." Rotha tried to hold her tongue. It was hard. "Did Mrs. Mowbray give _you_ anything Christmas?" Antoinette asked, pushing her inquiries. Rotha hesitated, but could find no way to answer without admitting the affirmative. "What?" was the immediate next question; and even Mrs. Busby looked with ill-pleased eyes to hear Rotha's next words. It seemed like making her precious things common, to tell of them to these unkind ears. Yet there was no help for it. "She gave me a travelling hand-bag." "What sort?" "Russia leather." "There, mamma!" Antoinette exclaimed. "Isn't that Mrs. Mowbray all over? When a morocco one, or a canvas one, would have done just as well." "As I said," returned Mrs. Busby. "Mrs. Mowbray does not know what to do with money. When are you going travelling, Rotha?" "I do not know. Some time in my life, I suppose." "What a ridiculous thing to give her!" pursued Antoinette. "Yes, I think so," her mother echoed. "Do not let yourself be deluded, Rotha, by presents of travelling bags or anything else. Your future life is not likely to be spent in pleasuring. What I can do for you in the way of giving you an education, will be all I can do; then you will have to make a living and a home for, yourself; and the easiest way you can do it will be by teaching. I shall tell Mrs. Mowbray to educate you for some post in which perhaps she can put you by and by; she or somebody else. So pack up your expectations; you will not need to do much of other sorts of packing." "You forget there is another person to be consulted, aunt Serena." "What other person?" said Mrs. Busby raising her head and fixing her observant eyes upon Rotha. "Mr. Southwode." "Mr. Southwode!" repeated the lady coldly. "I am ignorant what a stranger like him has to say about our family affairs."