That Colony of God

"Ha, ha!" laughed Sir Edward Mainwaring, as he recognised by the twist
he had given to his muscles when peering through the little office
window that the gossipy post-mistress had ocular proof at the moment of
the veracity of at least one of her statements. "But that girl is not a
native of Monthurst, surely? And there's more than pinky-whiteness, as
you call it, in her face. She's got something that a woman with good
looks should never be without and that's self-respect, Mrs Gossall."

"If you mean pride, Sir Edward M. Mainwaring," snapped the other, "Hett
Bishop's got that in double measure, though her doesn't come anigh
Missus Bishop for stuckuppiness; an' she's no real kin to the girl
neither, on'y her step-mother. Where they come from nobody knows, an'
though they've lived for the past ten 'ears no farder off the
post-office than you can see, they scarce ever do more than pass the
time o' day when they meet you!"

"Don't care for village gossip, eh? I see," and a shrewd smile would
have revealed the speaker's unnamed discovery had it not been
effectually concealed beneath a thick grizzled moustache. "Well," he
continued, as he seated himself in a Windsor chair, " there are few
things more enjoyable to my mind than a good dish of gossip, and I can
do with it fairly spiced, Mrs Gossall!"

"Bless you, I don't want to be talking to cantankerous creatures wi'
more prickles ner a hedge-hog," returned the post-mistress viciously,
her asperity finding additional momentary relief in a sharp swing of her
body to the right. "A close woman though I abhor; an' it's my belief,
Sir Edward M. Mainwaring, that Missus Bishop wouldn't open her mouth
unless her were so minded - well, not to have a tooth drawed. You may
smile, Sir Edward M. Mainwaring, but I detest that make o' woman - it's
a make I can't an' don't understand. I'm for speaking out my mind
whether folk like it or not. I let 'em see what I am - plain Jemimer
Gossall wi' no pertence about me. I don't set up for being a grand lady
too proud to speak to my betters."

"Of course not," remarked the baronet, pacifically; "You've got more
sense. But this Mrs Bishop must be really a very remarkable woman; I've
always found women, well - only too ready if anything to talk."

"Why, that's nature wi' wimmen, Sir Edward M. Mainwaring," returned the
other with the air of one accepting a compliment; "You'd not be for
having 'em onnat'ral like Missus Bishop, surely? But what I draw from
such closeness, such myster'ousness as hers, is that things ain't just
what they should be! There's a summat to hide, you may depend upon! It
ain't for no good when folk come among you an' won't own to no relations
nigher ner Adam an' Eve!"