think a linen-draper's business, however large and well-conducted,
is exactly the career of a gentleman, a man of fair ability and
education. He might leave it to any respectable well-disposed tradesman.
However, if you are going to exalt Tom Robinson, with his shop, into a
patriot and philanthropist cherishing a noble scheme for the public
good, and all that kind of thing, do it if you like, nobody will hinder
you. Call him back if you care to, I dare say it is still possible if
you are willing to make the concession. But oh, Dora!" appealed Annie,
who had talked herself wide awake by this time, "don't forget the loss
of position involved in really keeping a shop, however eccentric and
meritorious a man's intentions may be. Why, he had better become a
stonemason or a ploughman, if he is to do the thing at all; far better a
gamekeeper or a soldier in time of war, the plunge would be deeper but
more picturesque. Think of the entire breaking with the county with
which we have a right to hold ourselves connected, not merely because
father's patients are willing to take us up and make quite a fuss about
us sometimes, but because his Aunt Penny married and was welcomed into
that set. You have not yourself alone to consider, remember, Dora; you
might not mind, but you have the rest of us to think of, some of whom
would mind very much."

"You need have no anxiety about the matter," said poor Dora hotly and
huffily. "I am not going to marry Tom Robinson; you know I have refused
him this very afternoon."

But Annie was determined to empty out her whole budget of warnings.
"Even professional people like father, all our friends and
acquaintances, our relations on both sides of the house would begin to
drop us, and fight shy of us. What people that had any pretensions to
being gentle-folks would care to be mixed up with our brother-in-law the
linen-draper? And it is not as if the temptation were great; I cannot
see wherein the attraction lies; but instead of letting it beset you,
please don't lose sight of the three hundred and sixty-five days to be
spent every year in Tom Robinson's silent company. Think of the three
hundred and sixty-five breakfasts, dinners, and suppers to be eaten
opposite his mute figure."

"Stop, Annie," Dora cried energetically: "you know as well as I do that
I could never face such a thing, that I never dreamt of it. Only loving
a man could make it possible for a girl to give up her family in order
to be