"There's where she shows her one grain of sense."
"There's where Dr. Darkham shows his tyranny," said Agatha "I believe he doesn't allow her to go anywhere."
Mrs. Greatorex shrugged her thin, ladylike shoulders.
"I suppose you know by this time that 'people are mostly fools.' And even if such light talk be true, and Mrs. Darkham is such a nonentity as to be controlled in the way you declare, her husband is quite wise to exercise his power."
"It is not wisdom in this case, it is cowardice. He is afraid of her vulgarity."
"No wonder. She was a tradesman's daughter, wasn't she?"
"Well," with some fire, "wasn't he a tradesman's son?"
"Still consider!"
"Oh, you to consider!" the girl interrupted her vehemently—- "you who lay so much stress on 'family'; you who will hardly acknowledge the Firs-Robinsons because they cannot swear to a grandfather."
"What I was going to say was that Dr. Darkham must be pitied about his marriage, to a certain degree. He has risen out of the mire of his birth and his original surroundings. She has sunk deeper into hers. I think," said Mrs. Greatorex, who had a fond fancy that she was a sympathetic soul, "that, of all harrowing afflictions, the worst must be that of a man tied for life to an uncongenial companion."