"But, you see, I never think
of you--when I am talking to you--as--as one of that class!"
Mary laughed outright this time: she was amused, and thought it
better to show it, for that would show also she was not hurt.
Hesper, however, put it down to insensibility.
"Surely, dear Mrs. Redmain," said Mary, "you can not think the
class to which I belong in itself so objectionable that it is
rude to refer to it in my hearing!"
"I am very sorry," repeated Hesper, but in a tone of some
offense: it was one thing to confess a fault; another to be
regarded as actually guilty of the fault. "Nothing was further
from my intention than to offend you. I have not a doubt that
shopkeepers are a most respectable class in their way--"
"Excuse me, dear Mrs. Redmain," said Mary again, "but you quite
mistake me. I am not in the least offended. I don't care what you
think of the class. There are a great many shopkeepers who are
anything but respectable--as bad, indeed, as any of the
nobility."
"I was not thinking of morals," answered Hesper. "In that, I dare
say, all classes are pretty much alike. But, of course, there are
differences."
"Perhaps one of them is, that, in our class, we make
respectability more a question of the individual than you do in
yours."
"That may be very true," returned Hesper. "So long as a man
behaves himself, we ask no questions.
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