"Well, I am really astonished!" exclaimed Mrs. Bladen. "Not wear mourning for her brother! Not go to his funeral! However, I suppose she thinks she has a right to do as she pleases. But, she may depend on it, people will talk."
Just then a servant came to inform Mrs. Bladen that her husband was waiting for her in the parlour.
"Well, my dear Mrs. Allerton," said she, as she rose to depart, "we have not yet settled about the mourning. Of course, you are not going to adopt Miss Constance's strange whim of wearing none at all."
"What she has said on the subject appears to me very just," replied Mrs. Allerton.
"Aunt Constance is always right," remarked one of the girls.
"As to Miss Allerton," resumed Mrs. Bladen, "she is well known to be independent in every sense of the word; and therefore she may do as she pleases—though she may rest assured that people will talk."
"What people?" asked Mrs. Allerton.
"Everybody—all the world."
Mrs. Allerton thought how very circumscribed was the world in which she and her family had lived since the date of their fallen fortunes.
"It is well known," pursued Mrs. Bladen, "that Miss Constance is able to wear mourning if she chooses it. But you may rely on it, Mrs. Allerton, that if you and your children do not appear in black, people will be ill-natured enough to say that it is because you cannot afford it. Excuse my plainness."