"Don't you think so, Cousin Harriet ?" Mrs.Culpeper sniffed at her bottle of smelling-salts.

"She seemed to me very ordinary," she answered stiffly.

"How could Gideon Vetch's daughter be anything else ?" "Yes, it's a pity about her father," admitted Margaret placidly.

"If what Mr.Benham thinks is true, I suppose the Governor has agreed not to interfere in this dreadful strike." Again Mrs.Culpeper sniffed.

"Every one knows he is merely a tool in the hands of those people," she said.
In the weeks that followed Stephen heard his mother's opinion repeated wherever he went.