“Why not?” inquired godmother Harriet.
“The expense, my dear!”
“I think I shall be able to afford it.”
“You, my dear,” said Aunt Annie, rather pointedly.
“I am the godmother,” said Harriet, with the light of battle in her eyes.
“So I hear. But don’t forget she is to be the child of a police constable.”
“She is not the child of a police constable,” said Harriet, with a mounting color.
“I don’t know whose child she is. That is a question I prefer to avoid. But in my humble opinion it will be a grave mistake to educate her above the class to which it has pleased Providence to call her. No good can come of it.”
“That’s nonsense!” The fine voice had a slight tremble in it.
Aunt Annie looked down her large nose. “At any rate, that has always been my view. And it has always been the view of, I will not say who. It is very perilous to tamper with the order of Divine Providence. And I am surprised that one who has been called to a position of high responsibility should think otherwise.”