CHAPTER XLV.
JOHANNA’S NEW SITUATION.
“Johanna, attend to me,” said Mrs. Oakley, upon the morning after these events.
“Well, mother?”
“Your father is an idiot.”
“Mother, mother! I dissent from the opinion, and if it were true, it comes with the worst possible grace from you, but I am sick at heart. I pray you to spare me reproaches or angry words, mother.”
“Haity taity, one must not speak next, I suppose. Some people fancy that other people know nothing, but there is such a thing as overhearing what some people say to other people.”
Johanna had not the most remote notion of what her mother meant, but Mrs. Oakley’s tongue was like many pieces of machinery, that when once set in motion are not without considerable trouble brought to a standstill again, so on she went.
“Of course. I n
