“Then,” said Charlotte laughing, “it’s not surprising we do not remember the circumstance.”
“I had forgotten it was so long ago,” said their mother. “It made a great talk at the time.” And then scandal that had been buried for years and years was revived and listened to with no small interest.
“Strange!” said Emma, “that Mrs. Grayson should talk of Mrs. Crawford.”
“I should think she would avoid all such stories as carefully as possible,” said Charlotte.
“I suppose she thought we knew nothing about it,” pursued Emma.
“But if we did not, she must,” replied Charlotte. “People cannot forget such things themselves.”
“Mrs. Grayson has gone through severe trials and mortifications in life,” observed their mother.
“Then it ought to give her some charity for others,” said Charlotte. “But she is the hardest woman I know.”
“It appears to me that’s always the case,” said Emma. “One would think that suffering would soften and purify—but it does not.”
“Not that kind of suffering,” remarked their mother. “That which comes of mortification, and which we experience at the hands of our fellow men, there are few natures fine enough not to grow hard under it.”