‘Well,’ said she, as her husband entered, ‘what did that impudent old creature want? You were a long time listening to her.’
‘She was consulting me about private matters, my dear; and I don’t consider Mrs. Stirk an impudent person.’
‘You are so fond of being mixed up with common people,’ rejoined his wife, ‘I am sure I never could understand your tastes.’
Had the sailor never been mixed up with common people Mrs. Somerville would not have been sitting where she was.
His feelings were stirred a good deal and he was in a mood in which pettinesses were peculiarly offensive to him. Besides that, he was inclined to think Granny’s acquaintance something of an honour.
‘If there were more people in the world like Mrs. Stirk, it would be a good thing for it,’ he said shortly. ‘You are an uncommon silly woman sometimes, Matilda.’
[[1]]Friends.