“I think,” replied Miss Earle, “that it is more remarkable that you should remember me than that I should remember you. Ladies very rarely notice the shop-girls who wait upon them.”
“You seemed so superior to your station,” said Blanche, “that I could not help remembering you, and could not help thinking what a pity it was you had to be there.”
“I do not think that there is anything either superior or inferior about the station. It is quite as honourable, or dishonourable, which ever it may be, as any other branch of business. I cannot see, for instance, why my station, selling ribbons at retail, should be any more dishonourable than the station of the head of the firm, who merely does on a very large scale what I was trying to do for him on a very limited scale.”
“Still,” said Blanche, with a yawn, “people do not all look upon it in exactly that light.”
“Hardly any two persons look on any one thing in the same light. I hope you have enjoyed your voyage so far?”
“I have not enjoyed it very much,” replied the young lady with a sigh.
“I am sorry to hear that. I presume your father has been ill most of the way?”
“My father?” cried the other, looking at her questioner.
“Yes, I did not see him at the table since the first day.”
“Oh, he has had to keep his room almost since we left. He is a very poor sailor.”