Browne in a long ulster, and soft hat, with
gloves, which his wife made him wear; and Mrs. Browne, in a Paris dress,
fearfully and wonderfully made, and a poke bonnet, so long and so pokey
that to see her face was like looking down a narrow lane.
No wonder the plain people of Ridgeville, to whom poke bonnets, and
jersey jackets, and long gloves, and pointed toes, were then new, were
startled, and a little abashed at so much foreign style, especially as
it was accompanied by nobility in the person of Lord Hardy. At him the
people stared curiously, deciding that he was not much to look at if he
was a lord, and wondering if he was after Augusta.
"Her mother will bust, if he is. She has about as much as she can do to
keep herself together now. I wonder if she has forgot that she was once
a hired girl, and worked like the rest of us?" was whispered by some of
the envious ones.
But this was before they had received Mrs. Browne's greeting, which was
just as cordial as of old, and her voice was just as loud and hearty.
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