In Mrs. Jose's pleasant face little dimples formed.
'Yes, Jane,' said she, 'but I'm thinking, Mrs. Tomkin-Jones is not in the best circumstances, though she be so high. You cannot expect her to do it for nothing. It is her misfortune to be unable to teach manners for the pleasure of the thing. You see it is just the same as giving lessons on the piano――one has to be taught the fingering――and that fingering in social life they call tact. Only them as knows it can teach it.'
'I will pay――and that gladly. What I desire is, that my Winefred should become a real lady.'
'Learn the fingering――that is all she requires,' said Mrs. Jose. 'In 'igh society they hold themselves above shoppies. All things don't agree with every one. There is my cat is ill after eating herrings. You must not let out that you have been a hawker. We know that by nature all are equal. Scripture says so, just as hams be when they come from the pig. But, my! what a difference there be in the curing! It is that which gives style and flavour, and makes a prime Wiltshire or a Yorkshire stand out above your raw green hams. It is into the pickle you must put Winefred, and I'll see to it, and the pickle must get right down into her bone. I don't approve of glazing and flummery, and when you cut in――nothing but saltpetre. If she is to dress and act as a lady, she must think and feel as a lady. When I see an old woman dressed very young, I say it is mutton with mint sauce, served as lamb; we will have Winefred real, and she has a right to be that, for her father was a gentleman. Mrs. Tomkin-Jones is my cousin, but I don't presume on that. She was a Stripe, and that was the name of my mother's family.'
'And do you think you can persuade them to take my Winefred――if I pay?'
'I will try. They used to keep their carriage. I don't say that they do so now. But it is not forgotten that they did. Keeping your carriage and pair――it sticks to one just as the smell of lavender does to your linen if you have kept them together.'
Mrs. Jose considered. Presently she said, 'But not a breath of a word about the huxtering. You know very well, Jane, I want to be delicate, but I can't help myself, I must explain. There are Mrs. Ball, the greengrocer, and Mrs. Trant, who has the drapery. Have they ever asked you to take a cup o' tea with them――I mean at the same table? No, they would say it would not be fitting and proper, because you were a travelling hawker. You see what a difference it makes your having a shop counter fixed, and one you carry about with you. Now the Tomkin-Joneses are above Mrs. Ball and Mrs. Trant as the lark is above the barndoor poultry. So you may conceive that if she knew what you had been――――'