Highty-tighty, says I, who's Mrs. Bertram that she should look
down on us in this fashion? Isn't the widow of a good honest butter
merchant who paid his way, and left a comfortable fortune behind him,
fit to associate with any lady of the land? Mrs. Bertram, indeed! A nice
way she has treated us all. It isn't every newcomer we Northbury folks
would take up. We hold ourselves high, that we do. Now, what's the
matter, Maria?"
"We didn't hold ourselves high about Mrs. Bertram," replied Miss Peters.
"It isn't fair to say that we did. We all rushed up to call before she
had the carpets well down. I did say, Martha, and you may remember too
that I said it, for you were helping me to the tail of the salmon at the
time, and I remarked that there was little or nothing to eat on it,
you'll remember that I said to you: 'let them put their carpets straight
at least.' But you wouldn't--you were all agog to be off, when you saw
that Mrs. Gorman Stanley had gone up there in her new bonnet, with the
red and yellow poppies--the bonnet you know that she said she got from
London."
"Which she didn't," snapped Mrs. Butler; "for I saw those identical
poppies in Perry's shop on the quay. Well, well, Maria, I may have been
a bit hasty in rushing after those who didn't want me, but the result
would have been all the same.
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