“Pretty work you would make of it!” said Isabel; “I wonder how you would begin.”
“Why, really, that is a problem worth solving,” replied Dora; “I wonder too. What part of my education do you suppose was intended to fit me for the storms of adversity? which branch of the distorted and grotesque plant, which forms my small portion of the Tree of Knowledge, would be of the slightest use to me in distress? I think I might, perhaps, be capable
of engaging as a ballet-dancer; but as to any thing else, I am sure I can not guess.”
“How can you talk so?” exclaimed her sister; “it is quite improper. You have had a very good education for a lady!”
“Well, I happened to see one of the maids cleaning the grate to-day in my room, and she looked so busy, so happy, and was chirrupping so cheerfully to herself, that I could not help stopping her to ask her what made her so merry; and she said in a frightened voice, as if excessively ashamed of herself, that she had no time to be unhappy, so she could not help it; for she had so much to do, that really, if she had a mind to fret, she should not have a minute to spare, for she was quite an underhousemaid, you see, and had to do the work, while the others looked after her. I told her I envied her.”
“You ought not to put such ideas into their heads, Dora; it is republican and leveling.”
“I do not think what I said will do any harm, Isabel. Hilary, if you had to work for your bread, what would you do? Should you not like it?”
“I believe I do it pretty much now,” replied Miss Duncan; “and I do not particularly wish for a change.”
“Well, I do,” said Dora, closing her eyes, and sinking into profound silence.
The morning past, the luncheon hour arrived, and not till after that did Mr. Huyton make his appearance, nor did he publicly account for his absence, or at all explain where, or how he had spent the three or four hours during which he had disappeared. The Duncans were to return home after luncheon, and as Hilary was proceeding up the long stairs to her room, to prepare for her departure, she encountered him at the top of them.