"He gets them principally from his mother, who is extremely aristocratic in her ideas."
"Was she of a high family?"
Mrs. Barton smiled.
"Her father was a fisherman," she replied, "and when a girl she used to run barefoot on the sand. Later on she sewed straw for a living. She is no worse for that, certainly, but it doesn't give her any claims to aristocracy."
"Do you think Percy knows about his mother's early life?"
"I presume she has kept it secret from him."
"I shall think of it when Percy gets into one of his patronizing moods."
"Remember, Bert, that neither he nor his mother is any the worse for her humble birth."
"I understand that, I hope, mother, just as I don't feel ashamed of our being poor."
"As long as we can make an honorable living, we have no right to complain."