"'Be good, sweet maid'-- I thought Mr.Kingsley and my Aunt were now obsolete." "One can be very nice without having read a book," she asserted.

Very silly and simple her words sounded, and laid her open to derision.
"Did I ever deny it ?" Hirst enquired, raising his eyebrows.
Most unexpectedly Mrs.Thornbury here intervened, either because it was her mission to keep things smooth or because she had long wished to speak to Mr.Hirst, feeling as she did that young men were her sons.
"I have lived all my life with people like your Aunt, Mr.Hirst," she said, leaning forward in her chair.

Her brown squirrel-like eyes became even brighter than usual.

"They have never heard of Gibbon.

They only care for their pheasants and their peasants.