"It may suit you, Ethel, but I would not do it for the world. What would Aunt Sally Bertie say, if she knew that you worked for money? Or suppose any ladies should come in and catch you at it, how ashamed you would be!"
"I don't see why," said Ethel. "Why should I be ashamed of working for money, any more than my father?"
"That is different, and besides, I don't believe your father likes it very well. Mother says she should think your father would be mortified enough to be only a book-keeper in an establishment where he has been head so long."
"I don't believe he cares," said Ethel, her face flushing with a feeling which she could not easily have defined.
"I don't know what mother will say, Ethel," Abby continued, without heeding her cousin's remark. "I know she would be very much mortified at the thought of my working for money. When Cousin Eliza stayed at our house, she used to give music lessons to the two Parkins girls, and mother always made her go round the back way, so that no one should see her. But I won't tell her about this, Ethel, if you don't want me to."
"You can do as you like about it, Abby," replied Ethel, with spirit. "I never intend to do any thing that I am ashamed of. But perhaps you would rather not be seen walking with any one that works for money."
"Now, Ethel, you know I did not mean any such thing. I don't care about it for myself. It is only what people will say, and I know they will think it strange."
"They may as well wonder at that as any thing else," said Ethel. "But good-bye, Abby. Come and see me, and I will show you what pretty work it is."
Abby promised, and walked home faster than usual, anxious to tell her mother all she had heard.
Mrs. Coles exclaimed, and wondered, and lamented, and being, though weak, rather an amiable woman, felt a sincere regret that her cousin should have fallen so low. Mr. Coles thought it just of a piece with their other conduct, and opined that Fletcher would not be ashamed to be seen driving a cart through the streets, if he could not find any thing else to do; in which opinion he came nearer to the truth than was always the case with him.