"No; ought I to do so, do you think?"
"I hardly see how you could explain by letter."
"Ruth would blame me for having had anything to do with Agnes, I feel certain of that. She wrote and said she was greatly surprised when I told her we'd asked Agnes to tea. Perhaps I shall tell her all about that some day, and then she'll understand how it came about."
Ann looked thoughtful. She was thinking how strange it was that Violet should have minded her school-fellows knowing of the straitened circumstances of her people at home, and what great store she must set on money and position to have imagined that she had been slighted on account of her not possessing either the one or the other.
"I wonder if Agnes has heard of father's appointment, yet," Violet proceeded presently, "I wish she could have seen that paragraph about him in the newspaper Dr. Elizabeth sent to me, I almost wish I had kept it to show her, but I forwarded it to Ruth; I should like her to know that my people are shortly to be in a better position."
"I don't see that it matters whether she knows it or not," Ann replied, a trifle impatiently.
"No, of course it does not, but—oh, Ann, I don't believe you mind in the least what people think of you!"
"I mind what those I love think of me, but I don't bother about the opinions of others. Father says we should do what we believe to be right, be quite straight in every way, and never trouble about what people may be thinking."
"I wish I could do that!"
"Well, why can't you?"