. The young man with the beautiful
brown curls, and dissipated, disgraced, and hidden face was not stiller
than the rest.

The little figure in the pink calico and the red shawl and big rubbers
stood for a moment silent among them all. The waiter came to take her
out but the gentlemen motioned him away.

Mary Elizabeth turned her five-cent piece over and over in her purple
hand. Her hand shook. The tears came. The smell of the dinner from the
dining-room grew savoury and strong. The child put the piece of money to
her lips as if she could have eaten it, then turned and, without further
hesitation, went back.

She touched the young man--on the bright hair this time--with her
trembling little hand.

The room was so still now that what she said rang out to the corridor,
where the waiters stood, with the clerk behind looking over the desk to
see.

"I'm sorry you are so hungry. If you haven't had anything for three
days, you must be hungrier than me. I've got five cents. A gentleman
gave it me. I wish you would take it. I've only gone one day. You can
get some supper with it, and--maybe--I--can get some somewheres! I wish
you'd please to take it!"

Mary Elizabeth stood quite still, holding out her five-cent piece. She
did not understand the stir that went all over the bright room. She did
not see that some of the gentlemen coughed and wiped their spectacles.

She did not know why the brown curls before her came up with such a
start, nor why the young man's wasted face flushed red and hot with a
noble shame.

She did not in the least understand why he flung the five-cent piece
upon the table, and, snatching her in his arms, held her fast and hid
his face on her plaid shawl and sobbed. Nor did she seem to know what
could be the reason that nobody seemed amused to see this gentleman
cry.

The gentleman who had given her the money came up, and some more came
up, and they gathered around, and she in the midst of them, and they all
spoke kindly, and the young man with the bad face that might have been
so beautiful stood up, still clinging to her, and said aloud:

"She's shamed me before you all, and she's shamed me to myself! I'll
learn a lesson from this beggar, so help me God!"

So then he took the child upon his knee, and the gentlemen came up to
listen, and the young man asked her what her name was.

"Mary Elizabeth, sir."

"Names used to mean things--in the Bible--when I was as little as you. I
read the Bibl