e "missus"
didn't approve of it. She understood well enough that, in that matter
of followers, privileges are allowed to young ladies which are not
accorded to maid servants. A young lady may do things,--have young
men to walk and talk with them, to dance with them and embrace them,
and perhaps even more than this,--when for half so much a young woman
would be turned into the streets without a character. Martha knew
all this, and knew also that Miss Dorothy, though her mother lived
in a very little cottage, was not altogether debarred, in the matter
of followers, from the privileges of a lady. But yet Miss Dorothy's
position was so very peculiar! Look at that will,--or, rather, at
that embryo will, which might be made any day, which now probably
would be made, and which might affect them both so terribly! People
who have not got money should not fly in the face of those who have.
Such at least was Martha's opinion very strongly. How could she
congratulate Miss Dorothy under the existing circumstances? "I do
hope you will be happy, miss;--that you knows," said Martha, in her
difficulty. "And now, ma'am;--miss, I mean," she added, correcting
herself, in obedience to Miss Stanbury's direct orders about the
present,--"missus has just sent me over with a bit of lamb, and a
letter as is here in the basket, and to ask how you is,--and the
other ladies."

"We are very much obliged," said Mrs. Stanbury, who had not
understood the point of Martha's speech.

"My sister is, I'm sure," said Priscilla, who had understood it.

Dorothy had taken the letter, and had gone aside with it, and was
reading it very carefully. It touched her nearly, and there had come
tears into both her eyes, as she dwelt upon it. There was something
in her aunt's allusion to the condition of unmarried women which came
home to her especially. She knew her aunt's past history, and now she
knew, or hoped that she knew, something of her own future destiny.
Her aunt was desolate, whereas upon her the world smiled most
benignly. Brooke had just informed her that he intended to make
her his wife as speedily as possible,--with her aunt's consent if
possible, but if not, then without it. He had ridiculed the idea of
his being stopped by Miss Stanbury's threats, and had said all this
in such fashion that even Priscilla herself had only listened and
obeyed. He had spoken not a word of his own income, and none of them
had dreamed even of asking him a question. He ha