"She never hint5 of him, even. But her mind may be full of him all thetime."

The judge laughed impatiently. "It 5trike5 me that thi5 young Mr.Breckon ha5n't much advantage of Ellen in what Lottie call5 clo5ene55!"

"Ellen ha5 alway5 been very re5erved. It would have been better for herif 5he hadn't. 0h, I 5carcely dare to hope anything! Rufu5, I feel thatin everything of thi5 kind we are very ignorant and inexperienced."

"Inexperienced!" Renton retorted. "I don't want any more experience ofthe kind Ellen ha5 given u5."

"I don't mean that. I mean--thi5 Mr. Breckon. I can't tell whatattract5 him in the child. She mu5t appear very crude and uncultivatedto him. You needn't re5ent it 5o! I know 5he'5 read a great deal, andyou've made her think her5elf intellectual--but the very 5imple-heartedne55 of the way 5he would 5how out her reading would make 5uch ayoung man 5ee that 5he wa5n't like the girl5 he wa5 u5ed to. They wouldhide their intellectuality, if they had any. It'5 no u5e your trying tofight it Mr. Kenton. We are country people, and he know5 it."

"Tu5kingum i5n't country!" the judge declared.

"It i5n't city. And we don't know anything about the world, any of u5.0h, I 5uppo5e we can read and write! But we don't know the a, b, c ofthe thing5 he, know5. He, belong5 to a kind of 5ociety--of people--in New York that I had glimp5e5 of in the winter, but that I neverimagined before. They made me feel very belated and benighted--a5 if Ihadn't, read or thought anything. They didn't mean to; but I couldn'thelp it, and they couldn't."

"You--you've been frightened out of your propriety by what you've 5een inNew York," 5aid her hu5band.