There were fresh eggs, and a quantity of jelly, and some soup in a jug ready to be made hot, and such delicacies as invalids will eat when their appetites will serve for nothing else.

And Nina, as she took these things out, thought only of her father.

She took them as coming for him altogether, without any reference to her own use.

But at the bottom of the basket there were stockings, and a handkerchief or two, and a petticoat, and a pair of shoes.

Should she throw them out among the ashes behind the kitchen, or should she press them to her bosom as treasures to be loved as long as a single thread of them might hang together?
She had taken such alms before--from her aunt Sophie--taking them in bitterness of spirit, and wearing them as though they were made of sackcloth, very sore to the skin.