"I was not thinking of that," answered his wife mildly.
"I know Heremore's never such a fool as to be thinking of one so much above him as Miss Brandon," remarked Mr. Stoffs.
"She is not above him now that they are poor," answered his wife.
"It isn't the money that made the difference," said Carl rather impatiently, "it's the habits that money gives. That's what is the matter. Miss Brandon may not be half worthy of him, and yet he would be mad to think of her; it is misery when people marry out of their rank, misery to both."
"But if they love each other?" suggested his wife.
"That only makes the matter worse; he knows not her ways. She has a language that is not his; if they did not care, they could go their own ways, and seek their own. I think Heremore is a great fool; I do!"
"I don't believe he has a thought of such a thing," said Mrs. Stoffs; but there was a manifest question in her voice.
"If he has, he'll rue the day he thought of it first," said her husband emphatically; and there the conversation ended; but when Mrs. Stoffs wrote again to Mrs. Alaine, which she did not do for some time—for to write a letter was an event in the honest woman's life—she thought proper to give her sister a hint of that which they had observed; and Mrs. Alaine, in her turn, thought proper to convey the hint, in the form of information, to Rose, who, however, answered readily,
"Love Miss Brandon? Well, mamma, and why shouldn't he?"
"Because Miss Brandon is not in the same class of life that he is, dear."