"To think," Miss Bird went on, "that you should taunt that poor child with a fact that has been patent to every woman in this house for weeks past! You have seen it--you know it. I repeat, I am heartily ashamed of you."
"Please spare me your lectures, Miss Bird."
"I will spare you nothing. I tell you to your face that you are a cruel, jealous woman. Dora is much younger than you, but is being married before you, and that is rankling in your mind. And so you bully her and tax her with liking Dr Mortimer when you know she likes him--ay, likes him far better than she likes the man she is marrying."
"But," interrupted H. R.; "Mr Jefferson happens to be very well off, and so our dear little innocent Dora does not see her way to give him up."
Miss Bird rose from her seat and walked up to where H. R. was sitting.
"Do you really know why Dora is marrying this young stockbroker?" she said.
"Because she is tired of working in the post-office, and wants to have a good time, I suppose," replied H. R.
"Oh! you suppose that! Well, I will tell you why. She is marrying him because she wishes to make your father's position secure in the Jeffersons' office, and, if possible, to improve it. She is deliberately marrying young Mr Jefferson with that object in view."
"Then she is very silly," said H. R., scornfully.
"Silly! Yes, she is silly! But how old is she?--nineteen! And at nineteen aren't many girls very silly--aren't their heads full of romantic ideas of self-sacrifice, and other nonsense! Yes, she is silly! If she were your age--twenty-eight--she would be marrying Mr Jefferson for her own sake, but she is only nineteen, and so she is marrying him for her father's sake. Now you understand!"