“Yes,” replied Miss Jemima, in exultant tones, “they have all been here; but a good many of them happened to come when I was out.”
“Cobbler” Horn sighed.
“Well,” he said, “I suppose this is another of ‘the penalties of wealth!’”
“Say rather privileges, Thomas,” Miss Jemima ventured delicately to suggest.
“No, Jemima. It may appear to you in that light; but I am not able to regard as a privilege the coming to us of all these grand people. How much better it would be, if they would leave us to live our life in our own way! Do you suppose they would ever have taken any notice of us at all, if it had not been for this money?”
Miss Jemima was unable to reply; for it was impossible to gainsay her brother’s words. And yet it was sweet to her soul to have all the best people in the neighbourhood calling and leaving their cards. For the present, she let the matter rest. But, a day or two afterwards, the course of events brought the question to the surface again. Miss Jemima was brushing her brother’s coat, in the dining-room, after dinner, previous to his setting out for his old workshop, when they saw a carriage drive up to the gate.
“Here are some more of your grand friends, Jemima,” said “Cobbler” Horn, with a sigh. “How ever am I to get out?”
Miss Jemima was peeping out from behind the window-curtain, with the eagerness of a girl.
“Why,” she exclaimed, as the occupants of the carriage began to alight, “it’s Mr. and Mrs. Brownlow, the retired b——.” “Brewer” she was going to say but checked herself. “Surely you will not think of going out now, Thomas?”
“Cobbler” Horn knew Mr. and Mrs. Brownlow very well by sight. He had known them before they rode in their carriage, and when they were much less splendid people than they had latterly become. He had never greatly desired their acquaintance when it was unattainable; and, now that it was being thrust upon him, he desired it even less than before. There was no reason why he should be intimate with this man. On what grounds had he called? “Cobbler” Horn could not refrain from regarding the visit as being an impertinence.