‘Mrs. Nesbit knows better,’ said Miss Gardner, laughing.
‘Don’t say so. If John’s illness had not prevented my coming out last year, I might have gone into the world like other girls. Now I see the worth of a young lady’s triumph—the disgusting speculation! I detest it.’
‘Ah! you have not pardoned poor Georgina.’
‘Do you wish for my real opinion?’
‘Pray let me hear it.’
‘Georgina had a grand course open to her, and she has shrunk from it.’
‘A grand course!’ repeated Jane, bewildered.
‘Yes, honest poverty, and independence. I looked to her to show the true meaning of that word. I call it dependence to be so unable to exist without this world’s trash as to live in bondage for its sake. Independence is trusting for maintenance to our own head and hands.’
‘So you really would have had us—do what? Teach music?—make lace?’
‘If I had been lucky enough to have such a fate, I would have been a village school-mistress.’