Excerpt from The New Mistress: A Tale "Remember, Hazel," said Mrs. Thorne, "remember this - we may be reduced in circumstances; we may have been compelled by misfortune to come down into this wretched little town, and to live in this miserable, squeezy, poorly-furnished house or cottage, with the light kept out by the yellow glass, and scarcely a chimney that does not smoke; we may be compelled to dress shab - " "Yes, yes, mother dear - " "bily," said Mrs. Thorne, with indignant emphasis on account of the interruption, "but remember this, Hazel, you are a lady." "Forgive me for interrupting you, mother." "Mamma, Hazel," said the lady, drawing herself up with great dignity. "If we are by a cruel stroke of fate compelled to live in a state of indigence when pride has made my eldest child refuse the assistance of my relatives, I still maintain that I have a right to keep up my old and lady-like title - mamma." "But, dear, I am only a schoolmistress now - a national schoolmistress, and it would sound full of foolish assumption if I called you mamma. And are you not my dear, dear mother? There, there, good-bye, dear," cried the speaker, kissing her affectionately; "and mind the dinner is done, for I shall be, - oh, so hungry." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.