It was so mysterious! I began
to suspect it was diamonds for me, but knew I never could wear them, and
was dreadfully afraid that I was going to be tempted, when slowly, bead
by bead, came out this amber necklace. Lu fairly screamed; as for me, I
just drew breath after breath, without a word. Of course they were for
me;--I reached my hands for them.
"Oh, wait!" said papa. "Yone or Lu?"
"Now how absurd, papa!" I exclaimed. "Such things for Lu!"
"Why not?" asked Lu,--rather faintly now, for she knew I always carried
my point.
"The idea of you in amber, Lu! It's too foreign; no sympathy between
you!"
"Stop, stop!" said papa. "You shan't crowd little Lu out of them. What
do you want them for, Lu?"
"To wear," quavered Lu,--"like the balls the Roman ladies carried for
coolness."
"Well, then, you ought to have them. What do you want them for, Yone?"
"Oh, if Lu's going to have them, I _don't_ want them."
"But give a reason, child."
"Why, to wear, too,--to look at,--to have and to hold for better, for
worse,--to say my prayers on," for a bright idea struck me, "to say
my prayers on, like the Florence rosary.
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