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W
ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 273
CHAPTER XVI
IN WHICH PHILIP SHOWS HIS METTLE
HEN the poor Little Sister proffered her mite, her all, to
Philip, I daresay some sentimental passages occurred
between them which are much too trivial to be narrated.
No doubt her pleasure would have been at that moment to give
him not only that gold which she had been saving up against rentday,
but the spoons, the furniture, and all the valuables of the
house, including perhaps J. J.'s bric-à-brac, cabinets, china, and so
forth. To perform a kindness, an act of self-sacrifice;—are not
these the most delicious privileges of female tenderness 1 Philip
checked his little friend's enthusiasm. He showed her a purse full
of money, at which sight the poor little soul was rather disappointed.
He magnified the value of his horses, which, according to Philip's
calculation, were to bring him at least two hundred pounds more
than the stock which he had already in hand; and the master
of such a sum as this, she was forced to confess, had no need to
despair. Indeed, she had never in her life possessed the half of it.
Her kind dear little offer of a home in her house he would accept
sometimes, and with gratitude. Well, there was a little consolation
in that. In a moment that active little housekeeper saw the room
ready; flowers on the mantelpiece; his looking-glass, which her
father could do quite well with the little one, as he was always
shaved by the barber now ; the quilted counterpane, which she had
herself made : — I know not what more improvements she devised ;
and I fear that at the idea of having Philip with her, this little
thing was as extravagantly and unreasonably happy as we have just
now seen Philip to be. What was that last dish which Pætus and
Arria shared in common ? I have lost my Lemprière's Dictionary
(that treasury of my youth), and forget whether it was a cold
dagger au naturel or a dish of hot coals a la Romaine, of which
they partook; but, whatever it was, she smiled, and delightedly
received it, happy to share the beloved one's fortune.
Yes : Philip would come home to his Little Sister sometimes ;
sometimes of a Saturday, and they would go to church on Sunday,
as he used to do when he was a boy at school. " But then, you
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