"You poor little thing, you!" she persisted. "Wherever are you goin', my dear, so alone?"
"I'm going to boarding-school," said Laura, and shot a glance at the couple opposite.
"To boardin'-school? Peter! D'you hear?—Why, whatever's your ma thinkin' of to send such a little chick as you to boardin'-school? ... and so alone, too."
Laura's face took on a curious air of dignity.
"I'm not so very little," she answered; and went on to explain, in phrases which she had heard so often that she knew them by heart: "Only small for my age. I was twelve in spring. And I have to go to school, because I've learnt all I can at home."
This failed to impress the woman.
"Snakes alive!—that's young enough in all conscience. And such a delicate little creature, too. Just like that one o' Sam MacFarlane's that popped off last Christmas—isn't she, Peter?"
Peter, who avoided looking at Laura, sheepishly mumbled something about like enough she was.
"And who IS your ma, my dear? What's your name?" continued her interrogator.
Laura replied politely; but there was a reserve in her manner which, together with the name she gave, told enough: the widow, Laura's mother, had the reputation of being very "stuck-up", and of bringing up her children in the same way.