“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“Then good-by,” and with a rapid glance at his sister, Dick left the room. Neither mother nor sister answered his words. Mistress Annis took rapid spoonfuls of coffee; Katherine broke the shell of her egg with quite superfluous noise and rapidity. For a few moments there was silence, full of intense emotion, and Katherine felt no inclination to break it. She knew that Dick expected her at this very hour to make his way easy, and his intentions clear to his mother. She had promised to do so, and she did not see how she was to escape, or delay this action. However, she instantly resolved to allow her mother to open the subject, and stand as long as possible on the defensive.
Mistress Annis made exactly the same resolve. Her lips quivered, her dropped eyes did not hide their trouble and she nervously began to prepare herself a fresh cup of coffee. Katherine glanced at her movements, and finally said, with an hysterical little laugh, “Dear mammy, you have already put four pieces of sugar in your cup,” and she laid her hand on her mother’s hand, and so compelled her to lift her eyes and answer, “Oh, Kitty! Kitty! don’t you see, dearie? Dick has gone through the wood to get a stick, and taken a crooked one at the last. You know what I mean. Oh, dear me! Dear me!”
“You fear Dick is going to marry Faith Foster. Some months ago I told you he would do so.”
“I could not take into my consciousness such a calamity.”
“Why do you say ‘calamity’?”
“A Methodist preacher’s daughter is far enough outside the pale of the landed aristocracy.”
“She is as good as her father and every landed gentleman, in or near this part of England, loves and respects, Mr. Foster. They ask his advice on public and local matters, and he by himself has settled disputes between masters and men in a way that satisfied both parties.”
“That is quite a different thing. Politics puts men on a sort of equality, the rules of society keep women in the state in which it has pleased God to put them.”
“Unless some man out of pure love lifts them up to his own rank by marriage. I don’t think any man could lift up Faith. I do not know a man that is able to stand equal to her.”