“Were you fighting my battles for me? That was very sweet of you.”

“You can put it that way if you like. There is nothing to me in a title. Vicar’s wife or no vicar’s wife, that woman is a cat. Hinting you had bought your way into Society.”

“Perhaps she was not so very far wrong.”

“And look at you,” continued Miss Viner. “Have you come back a stuck-up fine lady, as well you might have done? No, there you are, as sensible as ever you were, with a pair of good Balbriggan stockings on and sensible shoes. I spoke to Ellen about it only yesterday. ‘Ellen,’ I said, ‘you look at Miss Grey. She has been hobnobbing with some of the greatest in the land, and does she go about as you do with skirts up to her knees and silk stockings that ladder when you look at them, and the most ridiculous shoes that ever I set eyes on?’ ”

Katherine smiled a little to herself; it had apparently been worth while to conform to Miss Viner’s prejudices. The old lady went on with increasing gusto.