"We were just speaking of Mr. Dalton and Miss Lavillotte. Bab thinks that'll be a match."
"She's good enough for a king," said Babette, "and as pretty and grand as a princess, and he is our king here. Why shouldn't it be all right?"
"She's different from him, though," returned Rachel slowly. "She's been brought up different, Mr. Dalton has made himself a gentleman, but she didn't have to be made. She is a lady born."
"She must have money, too," said Gus. "She's real generous, I hear; and I guess it's true, for I know she has a kind way with her."
"I don't know about her having much money," said Rachel, "but she seems to feel that we all belong to her, somehow, and that she's got to look after us. If the Works, and the whole town, too, was her own she couldn't be more interested."
"She consults lots with Dalton," spoke up Dan. "But they say they're connections of some kind, and he looks after what property she's got."
"Then she has means?" asked Babette.
"Must have considerable," replied Gus. "That old fellow that works for her told me, once, that if she wanted to she could make a big splurge, but she wouldn't do it. He hinted as if she had reasons for being so interested here, but I couldn't pump a thing out of him. I guess he likes to boast pretty well, and he thinks she made the earth, anyhow."
"It's queer," mused Rachel, "that the new boss has never appeared in all these changes and improvements. I should think he'd want to see for himself what's going on. If he cares enough to do so much, he ought to care enough to come and look on."
"But he's in Europe, ain't he?"