("Evidently," she thought, "they have not been able to give her a private room, like mine, or perhaps she eats with them.")
"I think that is how they do it," the stranger went on, "by not having any separate life, really. It is all one life, with them."
"All one life..." the other repeated, vaguely, recalling, for some reason, the doctor's words, "but, of course, in a larger establishment that would not be possible. With servants..."
"I suppose that is why they have no servants," said the stranger.
There was a soft assurance in the tone, soft, but undoubtedly there. And yet what assurance should a woman have who did not find this house small? She discovered that she was still a little irritable, for she spoke brusquely.
"People do not employ servants, I imagine, for the very simple reason that they cannot afford to."
"Not always," said the other quietly. "I have known Ann and Hester many years, and there has never been a time when they could not have afforded at the least one servant."
"Tastes differ, I suppose," she answered shortly. "I should have supposed that every woman would take the first opportunity of relieving herself from the strain of household drudgery, which any ignorant person can accomplish."
"Have you found so many of them to accomplish it for you?"
She flushed angrily.