"I never have cheap food," she observed, "it is not an economy."
"Do you really think that?" she asked; "and I am always trying to be so very cheap."
Conversation lagged. Betty at the lower end of the table, had a good deal to say to Caroline, but it was all said in whispers.
When, however, the suet pudding with treacle had made its round the child demanded some dessert, and her mother, forgetful for the moment, gave her permission to carry round a silver basket from the sideboard, in which grapes and pears and other delightful fruits were clustered together in picturesque fashion.
"She is learning to be useful, you see, Violet," Camilla observed plaintively.
But Mrs. Horace Lancing was looking at the dessert through her blue-tinted glasses.
"Peaches!" she said, her tone a mixture of satisfaction and hostile criticism.
Camilla bit her lips, and was thankful that she had locked away her tradesmen's books with her letters and intimate papers.
"Take care, Betty, my sweetheart," she said, and then she explained as the child cautiously carried her burden from one to another. "A present," she said, "Mr. Haverford often sends me fruit; it is so good of him; such things are much appreciated by us."
"Mr. Haverford," repeated her sister-in-law, "who is he? I don't know his name."
"He's a dear," Betty responded before her mother could speak. "I 'dore Mr. Haverford! I wish he lived with us.... I tell you what," continued Betty, her eyes glistening, her little voice clear and high, "I wish he'd come and sleep with us, mumsy ... that would be really, really fun! I'm sure he wouldn't snore like nurse does, and I know he'd tell us a lot of stories. Oh, here is Baby! Come along, ducksie, and have a bit of Betty's appy...." Betty was always maternal with her little sister.
After luncheon the two children were ranged in front of Mrs. Horace Lancing, who interrogated them with a nervous manner and in the unnatural voice that some people think necessary to affect with children. Betty resented her questions and was mute, and she in her turn resented, as she always did, the little creatures' dainty appearance.
They only wore overalls of brown holland, but no home scissors had cut the holland, and, like their mother, they had already attained the art of giving distinction to the most ordinary garments.