Part 13 (1/2)
Jane Haden smiled.
”Noa, Jack, I don't think as how thou canst give Nell Hardy a dress. She is a good quiet girl and keeps herself respectable, which, taking into account them she comes from, is a credit to her, but I don't think thou could'st gi' her a gown.”
”But why not, mother?” Jack persisted. ”I might gi' her a pair o'
earrings or a brooch, I suppose, which would cost as much as the gown.”
”Yes, thou might'st do that, Jack.”
”Then if she could take the thing which would be no manner o' use to her, why couldn't she take the thing that would?”
”I doant know as I can rightly tell you, Jack, but there's a difference.”
”But can't you tell me what is the difference?” Jack insisted.
”Noa, Jack, I can't, but there be a difference.”
Jack seized his candle with a cry of despair, and ran upstairs. He had solved many a tough problem, but this was beyond him altogether. He was not, however, accustomed to be baffled, and the next day he renewed the subject, this time to Nelly herself.
”Look here, Nell,” he said, ”I want to ask you a question. It is a supposition, you know, only a supposition, but it bothers me.”
”What is it, Jack?” she said, looking up from the ground, upon which as was her custom she was sitting with a book while Jack sat on a gate.
”If I was to offer you a pair of gold earrings.”
”I wouldn't take 'em,” the girl said rising, ”you know I wouldn't, Jack; you know I never take presents from you.”
”I know, la.s.s, I know. We'll suppose you wouldn't take it, but you wouldn't be angered, would you?”
”I should be angered that you had spent money foolishly,” the girl said after a pause, ”when you knew I shouldn't take it, but I couldn't be angered any other way.”
”Well, but if I were to buy you a hat and a jacket and a gown.”
”You dare not,” the girl said pa.s.sionately, her face flushed scarlet; ”you dare not, Jack.”
”No,” Jack said consciously, ”I know I dare not, though I should like to; but why don't I dare?”
”Because it would be an insult, a gross insult, Jack, and you dare not insult me.”
”No la.s.s, I darena; but why should it be an insult? that's what I canna make out; why wouldn't it be an insult to offer you a gold brooch worth three or four pounds, and yet be an insult to offer you the other things? what's the difference?”
Nelly had calmed down now when she saw that the question was a hypothetical one, and that Jack had not, as she at first supposed, bought clothes for her.
She thought for some time. ”I suppose, Jack, the difference is this.
It's the duty of a girl's father and mother to buy fit clothes for her, and if they don't it's either their fault, or it's because they are too poor. So to give clothes is an interference and a sort of reproach. A brooch is not necessary; it's a pretty ornament, and so a lad may give it to his la.s.s wi'out shame.”
”Yes, I suppose it must be that,” Jack said thoughtfully. ”I'm glad I've got some sort of answer.”