"I know one thing _you_ could do for him, and it would be no
trouble," said Mary.
"I will do anything for anybody that is no trouble," answered
Hesper. "I should like to know something that is no trouble."
"It is only, the next time you ask him, to ask his wife," said
Mary.
"He is married, then?" returned Hesper with indifference. "Is the
woman presentable? Some shopkeeper's daughter, I suppose!"
Mary laughed. "You don't imagine the son of a lawyer would be
likely to marry a shopkeeper's daughter!" she said.
"Why not?" returned Hesper, with a look of non-intelligence.
"Because a professional man is so far above a tradesman."
"Oh!" said Hesper. "--But he should have told me if he wanted to
bring his wife with him. I don't care who she is, so long as she
dresses decently and holds her tongue. What are you laughing at,
Mary?"
Hesper called it laughing, but Mary was only smiling.
"I can't help being amused," answered Mary, "that you should
think it such an out-of-the-way thing to be a shopkeeper's
daughter, and here am I all the time, feeling quite comfortable,
and proud of the shopkeeper whose daughter I am."
"Oh! I beg your pardon," exclaimed Hesper, growing hot for, I
almost believe, the first time in her life, and therein, I fear,
showing a drop of bad blood from somewhere, probably her father's
side of the creation; for not even the sense of having hurt the
feelings of an inferior can make the thoroughbred woman of the
world aware of the least discomfort; and here was Hesper, not
only feeling like a woman of God's making, but actually showing
it!--"How cruel of me!" she went on.
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