But the child took a step backward, and said, with the manner of a duchess:
“Yes, she did this; and she sews very well. You can judge for yourself by trying her.”
Alice elevated her eyebrows and nose, and I was almost certain the ball on her head took an upward inclination too, but she said nothing except that she would call to-morrow and see the woman.
“What is her name, did you say?”
I told her Mrs. Rogers; and with a little nod that she understood me, she added:
“You ought to see the way Miss Christine is in. It’s too comical for anything, and would amuse me vastly were it not that I, too, feel vexed, and annoyed, and sorry for the girls. It’s too bad to have such a step-mother brought home to them, and I do not blame them for feeling aggrieved. I should rebel, too, to have such a woman thrust upon me.”
Gertie had stood very quietly listening to Miss Creighton, her eyes growing larger and darker, and the blood mounting to her cheeks and brow, which were crimson, as she burst out:
“It isn’t so, Miss Creighton, if by ‘such a woman’ you mean something bad. It is not so. Lady Edith is beautiful. I know her. I’ve seen her. She gave me a shawl and sent me things when I was sick.”
Alice, who was or affected to be near-sighted, and carried a glass at her side, raised it to her eyes and inspected this champion of Mrs. Schuyler, saying, with a little laugh:
“Really, I am glad to meet with one of Mrs. Schuyler’s acquaintances, and to hear so good an account of her. Pray, do you know her well?”