“Yes; and one of the prettiest, and I dare say one of the best of ’em, was a servant-girl in Governor Benning Wentworth’s kitchen, and he married her out of it.  Did Fan ever tell you that?” and Will chuckled.

Amy Robson stared at Will with amazement as she exclaimed,—­

“Well, I never saw such a queer boy as you are,—­to run your own family down.”

“I’m not running ’em down.  ’Tisn’t running ’em down to say that one of ’em married Martha Hilton.  Martha Hilton was a nice girl, though she was poor and had to work in a kitchen.  Plenty of nice girls—­farmers’ daughters—­worked in that way in those old times; the New England histories tell you that.”

Not one of the girls made any comment or criticism upon this statement, for Will Wentworth was known to be well up in history; but after a moment or two of silence, Dora burst forth in this wise,—­

“You may talk as you like.  Will Wentworth, but you know perfectly well that you don’t think a servant-girl is as good as you are.”

“If you mean that I don’t think she is of the same class, of course I don’t.  She may be a great deal better than I am in other ways, for all that.  In those old days, though, the servant-girls weren’t the kind we have now; they were Americans,—­farmers’ daughters,—­most of ’em.”

“Oh, well, you may talk and talk in this grand way, Willie Wentworth; but you know where you belong, and when the Pelhams come, Tilly’ll see for herself that you are one of the same sort.”

“As the Pelhams?”

“Well, what have you got to say about the Pelhams in that scornful way?” asked Amy, rather indignantly.

“I’m not scornful.  I was only going to set you right, and say that the Pelhams are fashionable folks and the Wentworths are not.”

“Oh, I’d like to have your cousin Fanny hear you say that.  Fanny thinks the Wentworths are fully equal to the Pelhams or any one else.”

“They are.”

“What do you mean, Will Wentworth?  You just said—­”

“I just said that the Pelhams were fashionable people and the Wentworths were not, but that doesn’t make the Pelhams any better than the Wentworths.  The Pelhams have got more money and like to spend it in that way,—­in being fashionable society folks, I suppose.  There are lots of people who have as much and more money, who won’t be fashionable,—­they don’t like it.”

“Your cousin Fanny says—­”

“Fanny’s a snob.  It makes me sick to hear her talk sometimes.  If she were here now, she’d be full of these Pelhams, and as thick with ’em when they came, whether they were nice or not.  If they were ever so nice, she’d snub ’em if they were not up in the world,—­what you call ‘swells.’  She never got such stuff as that from the Wentworths.”

“There are plenty of people like your cousin,” spoke up Tilly, with sudden emphasis and a fleeting glance at Agnes Brendon.

“Oh, now, Tilly, don’t say that,” cried Dora, in a funny little wheedling tone, “don’t now; you’ll hurt some of our feelings, for we shall think you mean one of us, and you can’t mean that, Tilly dear,”—­the wheedling tone taking on a droll, merry accent,—­“you can’t, for you know how independent and high-minded we all are,—­how incapable of such meanness!”