voice.

"Lord bless us! Now who'd have thought it? I think nothing a sacrifice
to give mine the best of education," said Mrs. Tom.

CHAPTER XIV.

STRANGERS.

"Well, Ursula, how do you do?" said Mrs. Sam Hurst, meeting her young
neighbour with outstretched hands. She was a portly good-looking woman
with an active mind, and nothing, or next to nothing to do, and instead
of being affronted as some persons might have been, she was amused, and
indeed flattered, by the suspicion and alarm with which all the young
Mays regarded her. Whether she had the least intention of ever giving
any justification to their alarms it would be impossible to say, for
indeed to a sensible woman of forty-five, well to do and comfortable, a
husband with "a temper of his own," and a large poor unruly family, was,
perhaps, not so tempting as he appeared to be to his jealous children.
Anyhow she was not at all angry with them for being jealous and afraid
of her. She was cordial in her manner to the Mays as to everybody she
knew. She asked how Ursula had enjoyed herself, where she had been, what
she had seen, and a hundred questions more.

"It is quite delightful to see somebody who has something to tell," she
said when the interrogation was over. "I ask everybody what news, and
no one has any news, which is dreadful for me."

"How can you care for news?" said Ursula, "news! what interest can there
be in mere news that doesn't concern us?"

"You are very foolish, my dear," said Mrs. Hurst; "what's to become of
you when you're old, if you don't like to hear what's going on? I'm
thankful to say I take a great deal, of interest in my fellow-creatures
for my part. Now listen, I'll tell you a piece of news in return for all
your information about London. When I was in Tozer's shop to-day--I
always go there, though they are Dissenters; after all, you know, most
tradespeople are Dissenters; some are sorry for it, some think it quite
natural that gentle-people and tradespeople should think differently in
religious matters; however, what I say is, you can't tell the difference
in butter and bacon between church and dissent, can you now? and Tozer's
is the best shop in the town, certainly the best shop. So as I was in
Tozer's as I tell you, who should come in but old Mrs. Tozer, who once
kept it herself--and by her side, figure my astonishment, a young lady!
yes, my dear, actually a young lady, in appearance, of course--I mean in
appearance--f