"We are respectable people," said her mother smiling.
"Not gentlemen, of course; but what do you call us?"
"If I could call you a Christian, Rotha, I should not care for anything else; at least I should not be concerned about it. Everything else would be right."
"Being a Christian would not make any difference in what I am talking about."
"I think it would; but I cannot talk to you about it, Ask Mr. Digby the next time he comes."
"Ask him!" cried Rotha. "I guess I will! What makes you think he is coming again, mother?"
"It would be like him."
CHAPTER V.
PRIVATE TUITION.
More days passed however, than either of them expected, before Mr. Digby came again. They were days of stern cold winter weather, in which it was sometimes difficult to keep their little rooms comfortable without burning more coal than Mrs. Carpenter thought she could afford. Rotha ran along the streets to the corner shop where she bought tea and sugar, not quite so well wrapped up but that she found a quick pace useful to protect her from the cold; and Mrs. Carpenter wrought at her sewing sometimes with stiffened fingers.