Carry, she knows more about him than I do."

"Dawn finds it handy to put her lovers on to me," said Carry, who was
washing away the spilt tea and airing some uncomplimentary opinions of
Andrew and Uncle Jake between whiles.

"Why don't you come and see me, Carry?" continued Mrs Bray.

"I can't be bothered, I've got my living to earn and have no time for
visiting," said that uncompromising young woman.

"Anything new on here, Dawn?" asked Mrs Bray, turning to her.

"No, only Miss Flipp's uncle is coming up by this afternoon's train
and we're dying to see him, there's been so much blow about him.
Andrew is going to get out a tub to hold the tips."

"Well, I'll be going now to get Bray his tea or there'll be a jawin'
and sulkin' match between us. That's the way with men,--if you're not
always buckin' around gammoning you think 'em somebody, they get like
a bear with a scalded head. Well, come over and see me some day," she
said hospitably to me. "Walk along a bit with me now and see the way."

To this I agreed, and going to get a parasol heard the incautious
woman remark behind me--

"Seems to be an old maid--a gaunt-lookin' old party--ain't got no
complexion. I wonder was she ever going to be married. Don't look as
if many would be breakin' their necks after her, does she?"

Mrs Bray posed as a champion of her sex, but could not open her mouth
without belittling them. However, I was too well seasoned in human
nature to be disconcerted, and walked by her side enjoying her
immensely, she was so delightfully, transparently patronising. There
are many grades of patronage: that from people who ought to know
better, and which is always bitterly resented by any one of spirit;
while that of the big splodging ignoramus who doesn't know any better,
to any one possessed of a sense of humour, is indescribably amusing.
Mrs Bray's was of this order, and would have been galling only to the
snob whose chief characteristic is a lack of common-sense--lack of
common-sense being synonymous with snobbery.

"You'll get on very well with old grandma," she remarked, "she ain't
such a bad old sort when you know her; she must have a bit of property
too. Of course, I find her a bit narrer-minded, but that's to be
expected, seeing I've lived a lot in the city before I come here, and
she's only been up the country; but that Carry's the caution. The
hussy! I only asked her over out of kindness, being a woman with a
good home as I have, and