MRS. P.--Ah, madam, don't say so! Let us hope for the best. Master
George's high temper will subside when certain persons who pet him are
gone away.

MRS. B.--Gone away! they never will go away! No, mark my words, Mrs.
Prior, that woman will never go away. She has made the house her own:
she commands everything and everybody in it. She has driven me--me--Mr.
Milliken's own mother--almost out of it. She has so annoyed my dear
husband, that Mr. Bonnington will scarcely come here. Is she not always
sneering at private tutors, because Mr. Bonnington was my son's private
tutor, and greatly valued by the late Mr. Milliken? Is she not making
constant allusions to old women marrying young men, because Mr.
Bonnington happens to be younger than me? I have no words to express my
indignation respecting Lady Kicklebury. She never pays any one, and
runs up debts in the whole town. Her man Bulkeley's conduct in the
neighborhood is quite--quite--

MRS. P.--Gracious goodness, ma'am, you don't say so! And then what an
appetite the gormandizing monster has! Mary tells me that what he eats
in the servants' hall is something perfectly frightful.

MRS. B.--Everybody feeds on my poor son! You are looking at my cap, Mrs.
Prior? [During this time MRS. PRIOR has been peering into a parcel which
MRS. BONNINGTON brought in her hand.] I brought it with me across the
Park. I could not walk through the Park in my cap. Isn't it a pretty
ribbon, Mrs. Prior?

MRS. P.--Beautiful! beautiful? How blue becomes you! Who would think you
were the mother of Mr. Milliken and seven other darling children? You