“One only, I believe, a girl of about your own age.”
“Oh, mamma, how I should like to know her!”
“My dear Rose, how can you speak of such a thing? You don't realize that she is an atheist, has not even been baptized, poor little thing!”
“But she is my cousin, and she is a girl just like me,” said Rose. “I should like to know her very much. I wonder whether she has come out yet. I wonder how she enjoyed her first ball.”
“My dear! They are not in society.”
“How dull! What does she do all day, I wonder?”
“I cannot tell, I wish you would not talk about her, Rose; I should not wish you even to think about her, except, indeed, to mention her in your prayers.”
“Oh, I'd much rather have her here to stay,” said Rose, with a little mischievous gleam in her eyes.
“Rose!”
“Why mamma, if she were a black unbeliever you would be delighted to have her; it is only because she is white that you won't have anything to do with her. You would have been as pleased as possible if I had made friends with any of the ladies in the Zenanas.”