"Oh, nonsense, dear!" said Mrs. Day, looking up with alarm in her tired eyes.
"Well, if Mr. Gibbon is in love with Bessie?"
"'If,' indeed!"
"That will be the end of it. You'll see."
"The end indeed, Deleah!"
"You think Bessie would not take him?"
"Bessie will, at least, wait till he asks her."
"But should you object, mama? He is not a gentleman, I suppose; Bessie says he's not. But I think we've got to accept things and people and our place, as we are; not always to be looking back to what used to be. I often wish Bessie would see it like that, mama."
"We should be all happier if we could, I have no doubt," poor Mrs. Day sighed. The poor lady could not always keep before her mind the fate of Lot's wife, and often cast longing eyes towards the pleasant, easeful land that had been home.
"And I am not always inclined to take Bessie's opinion as to what is a lady or what is a gentleman."