"Whether it is good or bad for you?" returned Charlotte.
"There's no 'bad' in it," cried Eliza Tyrrett indignantly. "I never saw such an old maid as you are, Charlotte East, never! Carry Mason's not a child, to be led into mischief."
"Carry's very foolish," was Charlotte's comment.
"Oh, of course you think so, or it wouldn't be you. You'll go and tell upon her at home, I suppose, now."
"I shall tell her," said Charlotte. "Folks should choose their acquaintances in their own class of life, if they want things to turn out pleasantly."
"Were you not all took in about that shawl!" uttered Eliza Tyrrett, with a laugh. "You thought she went in debt for it at Bankes's, and her people at home thought so. Het Mason shrieked on at her like anything, for spending money on her back while she owed it for her board. He gave her that."
"Eliza!"
"He did. Law, where's the harm? He is rich enough to give all us girls in Honey Fair one apiece, and who'd be the worse for it? Only his pocket; and that can afford it. I wish he would!"
"I wish you would not talk so, Eliza. She is not a fit companion for him, even though it is but to take a walk; and she ought to remember that she is not."
"He wants her for a longer companion than that," observed Eliza Tyrrett; "that is, if he tells true. He wants her to marry him."