Hers is one of those
stories hard to tell. Besides, her friend and patron has suffered much
criticism because of her, and though Mrs. Roberts does not care in the
least, I find that I am sensitive.
"Has she really kept that Colson girl with her all these years?" Yes,
she has. I speak it meekly, but she has! "And never had her learn a
trade, or work in a factory, or learn to support herself in any way?"
She has never sent her anywhere to learn a trade or to work in a factory
or to stand behind a counter. It is too true.
No, I was almost sure you did not approve of it. But, for all that, I
don't mean to argue Mrs. Roberts' cause. "To her own Master she standeth
or falleth."
Not but what Mrs. Roberts has argued, on occasion,--with Gracie Dennis,
for instance, who paid her a few weeks' visit, less than three months
after she first went home.
"Flossy," she would say, "what are you going to do--with the girl? Do
you really mean to keep her here?"
"She has no mother, my child, nor father; and her brother is not able to
care for her yet. Where would you have me send her?"
"Why, Flossy, there are places."
"Yes, my dear, I know it, and this is one of them."
"Well, but she ought to be learning things.
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