I know it in a hundred ways.' Agnes ruminated.
'And it's all because of us ?' she said at last reflectively.
'Of course! I put it to you, Agnes'-- and Rose stood still with a tragic air--'I put it to you, whether it isn't too bad that three unoffending women should have such a role as this assigned them against their will!' The eloquence of eighteen was irresistible.

Agnes buried her head in the sofa cushion, and shook with a kind of helpless laughter.

Rose meanwhile stood in the window, her thin form drawing up to its full height, angry with Agnes, and enraged with all the world.
'It's absurd, it's insulting,' she exclaimed.

'I should imagine that you and I Agnes, were old enough and sane enough to look after mamma, put out the stores, say our prayers, and prevent each other from running away with adventurers! I won't be always in leading-strings.

I won't acknowledge that Catherine is bound to be an old maid to keep me in order.