CHAPTER XXVII
"Wonderful Bird!"
There were but two days between the scenes described in the last
chapter and the day fixed for Mary's departure, and during these
two days Larry Twentyman's name was not mentioned in the house.
Mrs. Masters did not make herself quite pleasant to her
stepdaughter, having still some grudge against her as to the twenty
pounds. Nor, though she had submitted to the visit to Cheltenham,
did she approve of it. It wasn't the way, she said, to make such a
girl as Mary like her life at Chowton Farm, going and sitting and
doing nothing in old Lady Ushant's drawing-room. It was cocking her
up with gimcrack notions about ladies till she'd be ashamed to look
at her own hands after she had done a day's work with them. There
was no doubt some truth in this. The woman understood the world and
was able to measure Larry Twentyman and Lady Ushant and the rest of
them. Books and pretty needlework and easy conversation would
consume the time at Cheltenham, whereas at Chowton Farm there would
be a dairy and a poultry yard,--under difficulties on account of
the foxes,--with a prospect of baby linen and children's shoes and
stockings. It was all that question of gentlemen and ladies, and of
non-gentlemen and non-ladies! They ought, Mrs. Masters thought, to
be kept distinct.
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