"Oh, yes. That will finish them till we go out. You ought to thank your stars you don't have to make calls."
"Yes. I get tired listening to complaints."
He smiled. "You aren't sympathetic?"
She thought of Rose Emily. "Well, I've seen so much real misery."
"It's real enough everywhere."
"Yes, I know. I suppose the truth is that life doesn't seem to me to be worth all the fuss they make over it. The more they suffer, the harder they appear to cling to living. I believe in facing what you have to face and making as little fuss about it as possible."
"I've noticed that. You hate fussiness."
She assented gravely. "When you've been very poor, you realize that it is the greatest extravagance."
"You've been very poor, then?"
"Almost everybody is poor at Pedlar's Mill. The Ellgoods are the only people who have prospered. The rest of us have had to wring whatever we've had out of barren ground. It was a struggle to make anything grow."