"Yes, ma'am," Matilda-answered softly.
"Hear her!" cried Judy. "She has got an idea that wine is money in another form, and heavy to drink."
Matilda thought that Judy had unwittingly put her very meaning into the words; but she did not say so.
"My dear," said Mrs. Lloyd, "I have drunk wine all my life. It has never hurt me."
Matilda was silent.
"Is that your notion, that it is unwholesome?"
"No, ma'am."
"What then?"
"People take too much of it," said Matilda; "and it ruins them; and if all good people would let it alone, wouldn't it help to make the rest let it alone?"
"Insufferable piggishness!" said Mrs. Bartholomew. "You must excuse me, Zara. I hope you will teach your adopted child better manners, arid get rid of a little of this superb folly."