'I like her,' she said distinctly. 'And
she's lonely.'
'Well, my dear, she'll soon have half a dozen children to keep her
lively.'
'Hush, Caroline! The man will hear you.'
Caroline addressed Rose. 'Sophia's modesty is indecent. I've done what
I could for her.'
'Please listen to me,' Rose said. 'You are not to belittle Mrs. Sales
to people, Caroline. You can be a powerful friend, if you choose, and
if you sing her praises there will be a mighty chorus.'
'That's true,' Caroline said.
'Yes, that's true, dear Caroline,' Sophia echoed. 'And I think you're
taking this very sweetly, Rose.'
'Sweetly? Why?'
Caroline pricked up her ears. 'What's this? I'm out of this. Oh, that
old rubbish! She will have it you and Francis should have married. My
dear Sophia, Rose could have married anybody if she'd wanted to.
You'll admit that? Yes? Then can't you see'--she tapped Sophia's
knee--'then can't you see that Rose didn't want him? That's logic--and
something you lack.'
'Yes, dear,' Sophia said with the meekness of the unconvinced. 'And of
course it's wrong to think of it now that he's married to another.'
Caroline guffawed her loudest, and the astonished horse quickened his
pace. The driver cast a look over his shoulder to see that all was
well, for he had a sister who made strange noises in her fits; and
Sophia, sitting in her drooping fashion, as though her head with its
great knob of fair hair, in which the silver was just beginning to
show, were too heavy for her body, had to listen to the old gibes
which had never made and never would make any impression on her,
though she would have felt forlorn without them.
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