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"And what should you know of any one, at Gowan-brae?" cried Mrs Mollins. "I am sure if it was not for seeing the Court Calendar at Mount Flinders, I should not have known the names of above twenty people in my life. But you have such a hatred to strangers, and such a prejudice against any one that is in the least genteel, that I believe you would rather have seen me married to a shoemaker than to a gentleman."
"You had better not speak against shoemakers, my dear," said Mrs Mason, "as you happen to be nearly connected with several of them. I have on my feet at the present moment a pair of shoes made by your father-in-law, and I never wore better in my life; and though I believe he never was out of his native village, he is a very honest man."
"Mr Mollins's father a shoemaker!" cried Bell; "I wonder what you will say next. I declare I am quite diverted." She then burst into an hysterical laugh, which
