“I think I heard, Lyra,” said Annie; “but I had forgotten.” The fact, in connection with what had been said, made her still more uncomfortable.
“Well, I didn't work very hard, and I didn't have to work long. But I was a hand, and there's no use trying to deny it. As Mr. Putney says, he and I have our record, and we don't have to make any pretences. And the question is, whether I ought to go back on my fellow-hands.”
“Oh, but Mrs. Wilmington!” said Mrs. Munger, with intense deprecation, “that's such a very different thing. You were not brought up to it; it was just temporary; and besides—”
“And besides, there was Mr. Wilmington, I know. He was very opportune. I might have been a hand at this moment if Mr. Wilmington had not come along and invited me to be a head—the head of his house. But I don't know, Annie, whether I oughtn't to remember my low beginnings.”
“I suppose we all like to be consistent,” answered Annie aimlessly, uneasily.
“Yes,” Mrs. Munger broke in; “but they were not your beginnings, Mrs. Wilmington; they were your incidents—your accidents.”
“It's very pretty of you to say so, Mrs. Munger,” drawled Mrs. Wilmington. “But I guess I must oppose the little invited dance and supper, on principle. We all like to be consistent, as Annie says—even if we're inconsistent in the attempt,” she added, with a laugh.
“Very well, then,” exclaimed Mrs. Munger, “we'll drop them. As I said to Miss Kilburn on our way here, 'if Mrs. Wilmington is opposed to them, we'll drop them.'”
“Oh, am I such an influential person?” said Mrs. Wilmington, with a shrug. “It's rather awful—isn't it, Annie?”
“Not at all!” Mrs. Munger answered for Annie. “We've just been talking the matter over with Mr. Putney and Dr. Morrell, and they're both opposed. You're merely the straw that breaks the camel's back, Mrs. Wilmington.”