"Tell me what you did before you came here," she said.
"But don't you know?" said Agnes. "Sister Emily has been living with you for a long time. She must have told you about me."
"I am ashamed to say I never asked her anything about you."
"I suppose that is because you are very thoughtful. You were determined—yes, determined—not to give her pain. She is always so sad when she thinks of us; but Hughie and I are not really unhappy. We don't mind things now."
"What do you mean by 'now'? Tell me—do tell me."
"Oh, we are at school. Hughie is at a pretty good school, although it is rather rough. He is learning hard. He is to be apprenticed to a trade some day. Dear sister Emily cannot afford to bring him up as a gentleman; but she is saving every penny of her money to put him into a really good trade. Perhaps he will be a bookbinder, or perhaps a cabinetmaker."
"But people of that sort are not gentry," said Irene. Then she colored and bit her lips.
Little Agnes had seen so much of the rough side of life that she was not at all offended.
"Sister Emily says that she could not afford to bring us up as a lady and gentleman, and so we are to be trained for something else. I think she is going to put me into a shop."
"Indeed she won't," said Irene fiercely, "for I won't let her."