"You did? Hurrah! Tell me—tell me exactly what you said," cried Kate, laughing delightedly.
"Well, I said exactly that,—that she must be very ignorant or she would know more about the difference in people, that she would see the difference; and then I told her that my father was an engineer on the road, and that we had a nice home and plenty to eat and to drink and to wear, and books and magazines and papers, and then she asked me what I sold flowers on the street for, if we were as nice as that, and I told her that I wanted to buy something for myself that my father couldn't afford to buy for me; and then I remember"—and a little dimpling smile came over Hope's face here—"I asked her, 'Don't you ever want anything that your father doesn't feel as if he could buy for you just when you want him to?' and she was so irritated at my accusing her of being ignorant that she answered, 'Well, if I did, I shouldn't be let to go out on the street and peddle flowers to earn the money.'"
"The hateful, impudent—"
"But wait, wait! I was as bad as she was here, because I answered back, 'And I shouldn't be allowed to say "let to go," like ignorant North Enders.'"
"Oh, Hope, Hope, this is beautiful, beautiful!" and Kate began to dance wildly around the room, thrumming an imaginary pair of castanets as she danced.
"I don't think it was very beautiful," protested Hope; "but you can see by this speech that I was as bad as she after I got my temper up."
"Bad! it was beautiful, beautiful,—just the best thing I ever heard. Bad! well, I should say not."
"But she didn't mean to hurt me, to begin with, and I—I meant to hurt her in everything I said. Remember that."
"You meant to enlighten her, and I fancy you did, and you certainly got the better of her."
"Yes, and her father told her so, she said, when I recalled the 'scrimmage,' as she termed it, to her mind; and yet in spite of that she didn't lay up anything against me. She had forgotten my face, and was fast forgetting the whole affair when I brought things back to her. She had never had a bit of grudge against me, and she only laughed when she recalled some of the things I had said. I'm glad now to tell you the whole story, for you must see by what I have told you, that she isn't in the least malicious, and you must see, too, that she is really much better natured than we have thought her, not to have laid up anything; yes, much better natured than I am."