The Sign of the Red Cross | Page 5

their worst enemy, as some amongst them
well knew.
"I never believed a word of it!" said the wife of the Master Builder, as
she sat in her fine drawing room and fanned herself with a great fan
made of peacock's feathers. She was very handsomely dressed, far
muore like a fine Court dame than the wife of a simple citizen. Her
comnpanion was a very pretty girl of about nineteen, whose abundant
chestnut hair was dressed after a fashionable mode, although she
refused to have it frizzed over her head as her mother's was, and would
have preferred to dress it quite simply. She wished she might have
plain clothes suitable to her station, instead of being tricked out as
though she were a fine lady. But her mother ruled her with a rod of iron,
and girls in those days had not thought of rising in rebellion.
The Master Builder's wife considered that she had gentle blood in her
veins, as her grandfather had been a country squire who was ruined in
the civil war, so that his family sank into poverty. Of late she had done
all in her power to get her neighbours to accord her the title of Madam
Mason, which she extorted from her servants, and which was given to
her pretty generally now, although as much in mockery, it must be
confessed, as in respect of her finery. She did not look a very happy
woman, in spite of all the grandeur about her. She had frightened away
her simpler neighbours by her airs of condescension and by the
splendour of her house, and yet she could not yet see any way of
inducing other and finer folks to come and see her. Sometimes her
husband brought in a rich patron and his wife to look at the fine room,
and examnine the furniture in it, and these persons would generally be
mighty civil to her whilst they stayed; but then they did not come to see
her, but only in the way of business. It was agreeable to be able to
repeat what my lord this or my lady that said about the cabinets and
chairs; but after all she was half afraid that her boasting deceived
nobody, and Gertrude would never come to her aid with any little
innocent fibs about their grand visitors.

"I never did believe a word of it," repeated Madam, after a pause.
"Gertrude, why do you not answer when I speak to you? You are as
dull as a Dutch doll, sitting there and saying nothing. I would that
Frederick were at home! He can speak when he is spoken to; but you
are like a deaf mute!"
"I beg your pardon, ma'am. I was reading--I did not hear."
"That is always the way--reading, reading, reading! Why, what good do
you think reading will do you? Why don't you get your silk embroidery
or practise upon the spinnet? Such advantages as you have! And all
thrown away on a girl who does not know when she is well off. I have
no manner of patience with you, Gertrude. If I had had such
opportunities in my girlhood, I should never have been a mere citizen's
wife now."
A slightly mutinous look passed across Gertrude's face. Submissive in
word and manner, as was the rule of the day, she was by no means
submissive in mind, and had her mother's ears been sharper she might
have detected the undertone of irony in the reply she received.
"I think nobody would take you for a citizen's wife, ma'am. As for me, I
am not made to shine in a higher sphere than mine own. I have not even
the patience to learn the spinnet. I would sooner be baking pies with
Rebecca next door, as we used to do when we were children, before
father grew so rich."
Madam's face clouded ominously. She heartily wished she had never
admitted her children to intimacy with the Harmers next door. It had
done no harm in the case of Frederick. He was his mother's son, every
inch of him, and was as ready to turn up a supercilious nose at his old
comrades as ever Madam could wish.
But Gertrude was different--she was excessively provoking at times.
She did not seem able to understand that if one intended to rise in the
world, one must cut through a number of old ties, and start upon a fresh
track. It was not easy in those times to rise; but still the wealthier
citizens did occasionally make a position for themselves, and get

amongst the hangers-on of the Court party, especially if they were open
handed with their money.
Madam often declared that if they only moved into another part of the
town, everything