Part 30 (1/2)
”You are afraid you haven't money enough?” said Norton. ”Never fear!
Davy and I will pay the largest half; you and Judy shall give less, but it don't make any difference. I'll tell you! David and I will get the stand and the flask; and you two shall give the cups.”
”It isn't that,” said Matilda, very much distressed; ”it is not that, Norton; it is something else. It is”--
”What in the world is it?” said Judy, balancing herself daintily on one toe.
”It is--that I don't drink wine, you know.”
”What's that to do?” said Judy, while the two boys both looked at Matilda. ”_You_ haven't to drink or let it alone; it is not for your use anyhow.”
”No, I know that; but I don't think it is right--I mean,--I mean,” said Matilda, gathering courage, ”I have promised to do all I can to prevent people from drinking wine. I can't help in such a present as this.”
”They don't drink wine out of these little cups,” said David. ”It is something different; it is Noyau, or Curacoa, or Chartreuse, or Maraschino, or some of those things, you know.”
”Yes, but it is stronger,” said Matilda in a low voice. ”It's stronger than wine.”
”She's temperance!” exclaimed Judith, turning round on one heel and coming back into position. ”She's temperance! We are all wicked at Mrs.
Lloyd's; we drink Hock and we sip Curacoa. I suppose she has only been where people drink gin and lager; and she thinks it's all alike.”
”She has been at Briery Bank, Judy,” said Norton, ”where the wines are as good as in Blessington Avenue.”
”Then she ought to have learned better!” said Judy. ”That's all I have to say.”
”But Pink,” said Norton, and he was very kind, though he looked vexed,--”this is not anything about _your_ drinking or not drinking, you know. Grandmamma will have her wine and she will offer her cordial, just the same; it don't make any difference; only we want to give her something she will like, and she will like this; don't you see?”
”Yes, Norton, I see,” said Matilda, her eyes filling with tears; ”I am _very_ sorry; but I wish you and David wouldn't have anything to do with wine, either.”
”She don't mention _me!_” exclaimed Judy. ”Either I'm so good I'm safe; or I'm so bad it's no use trying to take care of me. You poor boys, she will try to take care of _you_. What impertinence!”
”No more than if you did it, Judy, come, now!” said Norton. ”It's no such thing; it's only nonsense. Now Pink, _don't_ be nonsensical!”
”We can do it without her being in the affair, if she doesn't like it,”
said David. ”But I do not understand,” he went on, addressing himself to Matilda. ”Giving a present isn't drinking wine, is it?”
”No,” said Matilda, who by this time could hardly speak at all. ”But Mr. David, it is helping somebody else to drink.”
”Do you think what you do would help or hinder?”
”What _you_ do might.”
”We shall go on just the same, whatever way you take. What difference can it make, whether your money is in it or not?”
”I don't know,” said Matilda struggling;--”none, perhaps, whether my money is in it. But my _name_ would be in it.”
”Do you think that would make any difference?--stop, Norton, I want to understand what she will say. What would your name do, in it or out of it?”
”Ridiculous! to spend time talking to her!” said Judy. ”That is just what she wants.”
But David waited for his answer; and Matilda's eyes were all glittering, while her little head took its inexpressible air of self-a.s.sertion.