horrified concern. "As many shillings would do, and they would be as
grateful," she said. "More they wouldn't understand."
"Then keep it, and dole it out as you like," said Sadie quickly.
"But I don't think that--that Lord Beverdale would quite approve,"
hesitated Miss Amelyn.
The pretty brow of her companion knit, and her gray eyes flashed
vivaciously. "What has HE to do with it?" she said pertly; "besides, you
say these are not HIS poor. Take that five-pound note--or--I'll DOUBLE
it, get it changed into sovereigns at the station, and hand 'em round to
every man, woman, and child."
Miss Amelyn hesitated. The American girl looked capable of doing what
she said; perhaps it was a national way of almsgiving! She took the
note, with the mental reservation of making a full confession to the
rector and Lord Beverdale.
She was right in saying that the poor of Scrooby village were not
interesting. There was very little squalor or degradation; their poverty
seemed not a descent, but a condition to which they had been born; the
faces which Sadie saw were dulled and apathetic rather than sullen
or rebellious; they stood up when Miss Amelyn entered, paying HER the
deference, but taking little note of the pretty butterfly who was with
her, or rather submitting to her frank curiosity with that dull consent
of the poor, as if they had lost even the sense of privacy, or a right
to respect. It seemed to the American girl that their poverty was more
indicated by what they were SATISFIED with than what she thought they
MISSED. It is to be feared that this did not add to Sadie's sympathy;
all the beggars she had seen in America wanted all they could get, and
she felt as if she were confronted with an inferior animal.
"There's a wonderful old man lives here," said Miss Amelyn, as they
halted before a stone and thatch cottage quite on the outskirts of
the village. "We can't call him one of our poor, for he still works,
although over eighty, and it's his pride to keep out of the poorhouse,
and, as he calls it, 'off' the hands of his granddaughters. But we
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