"
"Your tone was insufferable, miss!" cried the grand lady; but
what more she would have said I can not tell, for just then Miss
Mortimer resumed her place in front of Mary. She had no idea of
her position in the shop, neither suspected who her assailant
was, and, fearing the woman's accusation might do her an injury,
felt compelled to interfere.
"Miss Marston," she said--she had just heard Mrs. Turnbull use
her name--"if you should be called to account by your employer,
will you, please, refer to me? You were perfectly civil both to
me and to this--" she hesitated a perceptible moment, but ended
with the word "_lady_," peculiarly toned.
"Thank you, ma'am," said Mary, with a smile, "but it is of no
consequence."
This answer would have almost driven the woman out of her reason
--already, between annoyance with herself and anger with Mary, her
hue was purple: something she called her constitution required a
nightly glass of brandy-and-water--but she was so dumfounded by
Miss Mortimer's defense of Mary, which she looked upon as an
assault on herself, so painfully aware that all hands were
arrested and all eyes fixed on herself, and so mortified with the
conviction that her husband was enjoying her discomfiture, that,
with what haughtiness she could extemporize from consuming
offense, she made a sudden vertical gyration, and walked from the
vile place.
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