"Nothing."
"Nothing! you expect me to believe that? you call yourself a truth-teller, I suppose?"
"Mamma used to say I was," said poor Ellen, striving to swallow her feelings.
"Your mother! I daresay mothers always are blind. I daresay she took everything you said for gospel!"
Ellen was silent, from sheer want of words that were pointed enough to suit her.
"I wish Morgan could have had the gumption to marry in his own country; but he must go running after a Scotchwoman! A Yankee would have brought up his child to be worth something. Give me Yankees!"
Ellen set down the cup she was wiping.
"You don't know anything about my mother," she said. "You oughtn't to speak so it's not right."
"Why ain't it right, I should like to know?" said Miss Fortune; "this is a free country, I guess. Our tongues ain't tied we're all free here."
"I wish we were," muttered Ellen; "I know what I'd do."