Chapter Twenty.
Enderby News.
“Mamma, what do you think Fanny and Mary Grey say?” asked Matilda of her mother.
“My dear, I wish you would not tease me with what the Greys say. They say very little that is worth repeating.”
“Well, but you must hear this, mamma. Fanny and Mary were walking with Sophia yesterday, and they met Mrs Hope and Miss Ibbotson in Turn-stile Lane; and Mrs Hope was crying so, you can’t think.”
“Indeed! Crying! What, in the middle of the day?”
“Yes; just before dinner. She had her veil down, and she did not want to stop, evidently, mamma. She—.”
“I should wonder if she did,” observed Mr Rowland from the other side of the newspaper he was reading. “If Dr and Mrs Levitt were to come in the next time you cry, Matilda, you would not want to stay in the parlour, evidently, I should think. For my part, I never show my face when I am crying.”
“You cry, papa!” cried little Anna. “Do you ever cry?”
“Have you never found me behind the deals, or among the sacks in the granary, with my finger in my eye?”