"I am sure it is wicked to read such tales."
Sarah looked at her in mute astonishment. Grover said—
"You shouldn't be here at all. Can't Mrs. Latch find nothing for you to do in the scullery?"
"Then," said Sarah, awaking to a sense of the situation, "I suppose that where you come from you were not so much as allowed to read a tale; … dirty little chapel-going folk!"
The incident might have closed with this reproval had not Margaret volunteered the information that Esther's box was full of books.
"I should like to see them books," said Sarah. "I'll be bound that they are only prayer-books."
"I don't mind what you say to me, but you shall not insult my religion."
"Insult your religion! I said you never had read a book in your life unless it was a prayer-book."
"We don't use prayer-books."
"Then what books have you read?"