tience would and must raise them. When Turnbull, in the
narrow space behind the counter, would push his way past her without
other pretense of apology than something like a sneer, she did feel for
a moment as if evil were about to have the victory over her; and when
Mrs. Turnbull came in, which happily was but seldom, she felt as if
from some sepulchre in her mind a very demon sprang to meet her. For
she behaved to her worst of all. She would heave herself in with the
air and look of a vulgar duchess; for, from the height of her small
consciousness, she looked down upon the shop, and never entered it save
as a customer. The daughter of a small country attorney, who,
notwithstanding his unneglected opportunities, had not been too
successful to accept as a husband for his daughter such a tradesman as
John Turnbull, she arrogated position from her idea of her father's
position; and, while bitterly cherishing the feeling that she had
married beneath her, obstinately excluded the fact that therein she had
descended to her husband's level, regarding herself much in the light
of a princess whose disguise takes nothing from her rank. She was like
those ladies who, having set their seal to the death of their first
husbands by marrying again, yet cling to the title they gave them, and
continue to call themselves by their name.

Mrs. Turnbull never bought a dress at the shop. No one should say of
her, it was easy for a snail to live in a castle! She took pains to let
her precious public know that she went to London to make her purchases.
If she did not mention also that she made them at the warehouses where
her husband was a customer, procuring them at the same price he would
have paid, it was because she saw no occasion. It was indeed only for
some small occasional necessity she ever crossed the threshold of the
place whence came all the money she had to spend. When she did, she
entered it with such airs as she imagined to represent the
consciousness of the scion of a county family: there is one show of
breeding vulgarity seldom assumes--simplicity. No sign of recognition
would pass between her husband and herself: by one stern refusal to
acknowledge his advances, she had from the first taught him that in the
shop they were strangers: he saw the rock of ridicule ahead, and
required no second lesson: when she was present, he never knew it.
George had learned the lesson before he went into the business, and
Mary had never required