'I think she was a happy girl, Miss Fairbairn.'
'Humph! What do you say, Miss Delavan?'
'Uncommonly happy, I should say, ma'am.'
'Is that your opinion, Miss Essing?'
'Certainly, ma'am. There could be but one opinion, I should think.'
'What could make a girl happy, if all that would not?' asked another.
'Humph! Miss Gainsborough, you are the next; what are your views on the subject?'
Esther's mouth opened, and closed. The answer that came first to her lips was sent back. She had a fine feeling that it was not fit for the company, a feeling that is expressed in the admonition not to cast pearls before swine, though that admonition did not occur to her at the time. She had been about to appeal to the Bible; but her answer as it was given referred only to herself.
'I believe I should not call "happiness" anything that would not last,' she said.
There was a moment's silence. What Miss Fairbairn thought was not to be read from her face; in other faces Esther read distaste or disapprobation.