"No, of course not," said Kitty. "I remember when I used to have the same feeling when mamma was sick so long in Paris, and I had Miss Milliken for a governess. She meant to be good, and she was, but oh, so dry. I was reading the 'Tales of a Grandfather' for my English lesson, and she made it as dry as the Fourth Reader."
"How fond Kitty is of talking about the time when she was in Paris!" said Laura to Marion in a whisper. "She thinks she is ever so much better than the rest of us because she has been abroad," continued Laura. "Mother says she shouldn't think the Tremaines would want to say much about that, because Mr. Tremaine gambled away all his wife's property there. I do hate such stuck-up, aristocratic folks, don't you?"
The conversation was interrupted by a call to tea. It was the custom in Holford on all such occasions for the ladies of the congregation to send in refreshments. The table was bountifully supplied with all sorts of good things, to which the girls were fully prepared to do justice. They all stood round the room, while Lizzy Gates, Kitty, and two or three others waited upon them, and there was a great deal of eating, laughing, and talking. Marion was one of the waiters, and after the rest had finished sat down with them to "eat her supper in peace," as Lizzy said.
"Oh, Mrs. Campbell, please stay with us," said Kitty; "I think we have earned that privilege by our arduous labour. Don't you, girls?"
"Yes, indeed," was the general answer.
And Mrs. Campbell, nothing loth, sat down again. She was fond of the society of young people, and naturally gratified by the interest shown in what was most interesting to her. She had been at a good deal of pains, and had spent valuable time which she could ill spare in writing letters to the little missionary society in Holford; and taking Marion as an index of the state of feeling among its members, she had been vexed and disappointed by the apparent indifference.
"Girls, we ought not to ask her another single question," said Kitty at last; "it is a shame to make her talk so much, when she is so tired. Marion, I shouldn't think you would ever know when to stop."
Marion coloured, conscious that she had hardly even made a beginning.
"What a pity poor Therese could not been here!" said Lizzy. "She would have had more questions to ask than anybody. I think Therese would make a good missionary."
"Is Therese a religious girl?" asked Mrs. Campbell.