I will visit Mrs.
Florence, and Mrs. Harwood, and such an move in good society, but as
to your schoolteachers' wives and daughters, I must beg to be
excused."
"Every one to her taste," rejoined Mrs. Lemmington, with a smile, as
she moved towards the door, where she stood for a few moments to
utter some parting compliments, and then withdrew.
Five minutes afterwards she was shown into Mrs. Clayton's parlors,
where, in a moment or two, she was met by the lady upon whom she had
called, and received with an air of easy gracefulness, that at once
charmed her. A brief conversation convinced her that Mrs. Clayton
was, in intelligence and moral worth, as far above Mrs. Marygold, as
that personage imagined herself to be above her. Her daughters, who
came in while she sat conversing with their mother, showed
themselves to possess all those graces of mind and manner that win
upon our admiration so irresistably. An hour passed quickly and
pleasantly, and then Mrs. Lemmington withdrew.
The difference between Mrs. Lemmington and Mrs. Marygold was simply
this. The former had been familiar with what is called the best
society from her earliest recollection, and being therefore,
constantly in association with those looked upon as the upper class,
knew nothing of the upstart self-estimation which is felt by certain
weak ignorant persons, who by some accidental circumstance are
elevated far above the condition into which they moved originally.
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