"Mr. Hugh, ma'am,—"
"I won't have it, Martha. And when I say so, let there be an end of it." As she said this, she got up from her chair, and shook her head, and took a turn about the room. "If I'm not mistress here, I'm nobody."
"Of course you're mistress here, ma'am."
"And if I don't know what's fit to be done, and what's not fit, I'm too old to learn; and, what's more, I won't be taught. I'm not going to have my house crammed with radical incendiary stuff, printed with ink that stinks, on paper made out of straw. If I can't live without penny literature, at any rate I'll die without it. Now listen to me."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I have asked Mrs. Stanbury to send one of the girls over here."
"To live, ma'am?" Martha's tone as she asked the question, showed how deeply she felt its importance.
"Yes, Martha; to live."
"You'll never like it, ma'am."
"I don't suppose I shall."