"Why, it is the original!" he exclaimed, "and I do not read French readily. Are you familiar with it?"
"Oh, yes," and Mona smiled slightly.
She had been accounted the finest French scholar in her class.
Mr. Hamblin regarded her wonderingly.
"Where did you learn French to be able to read it at sight?" he inquired.
"At school."
"But—I thought—" he began, and stopped confused.
"You thought that a common seamstress must necessarily be ignorant, as well as poor," Mona supplemented: "that she would not be likely to have opportunities or ambition for self-improvement. Well, Mr. Hamblin, perhaps some girls in such a position would not, but I honestly believe that there is many a poor girl, who has had to make her own way in life, who is better educated than many of the so-called society belles of to-day."
"I believe it, too, if you are a specimen," her companion returned, as he gazed admiringly into Mona's flushed and animated face.
"At any rate," he added, "you are far more beautiful than the majority of society girls."