She doesn't care a scrap for all I say to her, though she knows well enough it's as much as her father can do to keep things going at all.

There never was such bad times in _my_ recollection! How are things in London?
Did you hear much complaint ?' Emily found it hard to resist a smile at the thought of Mr.Athel or any of those belonging to him indulging in complaints of this nature.
'And what sort of people are they you've got with this time ?' the other went on to ask.

'Do they treat you well ?' 'Very well indeed.' It would have been difficult for a stranger, comparing Emily, her tone and bearing, with the members of the Cartwright family, to believe that she came of the same class and had lived through her girlhood under precisely similar conditions.

So marked a difference could not but impress even the Cartwrights themselves; the girls did not behave with entire freedom in her presence, and influences to which they were anything but readily susceptible were apparent in the tone they adopted in addressing her.

In spite of themselves, they bowed to a superiority but vaguely understood.