the same with the saints, is it not?"

"Yes," said Bébée, thoughtfully.

The saints were mixed up in her imagination with the fairies in an
intricacy that would have defied the best reasonings of Father
Francis.

"Well, then, you will wear the stockings, will you not? Only, believe me,
your feet are far prettier without them."

Bébée laughed happily, and took another peep in the cosy rose-satin nest.
But her little face had a certain perplexity. Suddenly she turned on him.

"Did not _you_ put them there?"

"I?--never!"

"Are you quite sure?"

"Quite; but why ask?"

"Because," said Bébée, shutting the box resolutely and pushing it a
little away,--"because I would not take it if you did. You are a
stranger, and a present is a debt, so Antoine always said."

"Why take a present then from the Varnhart children, or your old friend
who gave you the clasps?"

"Ah, that is very different. When people are very, very poor, equally