no
fashionable girls here yet. Till the terrace is built, and the
esplanade--"

"There shall be neither terrace nor esplanade if the Major is to do such
things upon them."

"I am sure that he never would," I replied; "it was only their dresses
that he liked at all, and that very, to my mind, extraordinary style,
as well as unbecoming. You know what I mean, Mrs. Hockin, that
wonderful--what shall I call it?--way of looping up."

"Call me 'Aunt Mary,' my dear, as you did when the waves were so
dreadful. You mean that hideous Mexican poncho, as they called it, stuck
up here, and going down there. Erema, what observation you have! Nothing
ever seems to escape you. Did you ever see any thing so indecorous?"

"It made me feel just as if I ought not to look at them," I answered,
with perfect truth, for so it did; "I have never been accustomed to
such things. But seeing how the Major approved of them, and liked to
be walking up and down between them, I knew that they must be not only
decorous, but attractive. There is no appeal from his judgment, is
there?"

"I agree with him upon every point, my dear child; but I have always
longed to say a few words about that. For I can not help thinking that
he went too far."

CHAPTER XXII

BETSY BOWEN

So far, then, there was nobody found to go into my case, and to think
with me, and to give me friendly countenance, with the exception of
Firm Gundry. And I feared that he tried to think with me because of his
faithful and manly love, more than from balance of evidence. The Sawyer,
of course, held my father guiltless, through his own fidelity and simple
ways; but he could not enter into my set thought of a stern duty laid
upon me, because to his mind the opinion of the world mattered nothing
so long as a man did aright. For wisdom like this, if wisdom it is, I
was a great deal too young and ardent; and to me fair fame was of almost
equal value with clear conscience. And therefore, wise or foolish, rich
or poor, beloved or unloved, I must be listless about other things, and
restless in all, until I should establish truth and justice.

However, I did my best to be neither ungrateful nor stupidly obstinate,
and, beginning more and more to allow for honest though hateful
opinions, I yielded to dear Mrs. Hockin's wish that I should not do
any thing out of keeping with English ideas and habits. In a word, I
accepted the Major's kind offer to see me quite safe in good hands in
Lo