"So do I, as a general thing. But, then, you know, it's well to have something a little better than ordinary once in a while." "Well, if you're not satisfied with my way of doing things, you must hire a cook, or go and board out." And Mrs. Darling put on her _injured look_, and remained silent during the rest of the dinner. But, after all, she was not an ill-natured woman really; and, after her husband had gone to his shop, she began to feel a little pricked in her conscience for having been so cross at dinner. She wished she had not _gone on_ at such a rate. But, then, John had bored her so about that dinner at Colonel Philpot's--she was out of patience with it. Yet what right had she to be out of patience with John? He never was out of patience with her, and she could but acknowledge that he often had reason to be so. So she resolved to _make it up_ as soon as possible. "John," said she, as she handed him a cup of tea, "I've a great notion to try that potato pudding. I believe I could make one." "No doubt of it, Hester," said her husband; "you can do almost anything you try to." "I suppose it takes butter, and sugar, and eggs, and spices, and so forth; but I wish I knew the proportions." "It's very easy to find out all about it by calling at Colonel Philpot's. He said his wife would be delighted to get acquainted with you." "So you've told me a dozen times; but I think that, if she wanted to get acquainted with me, she might call upon me. She's lived here longer than I have, and it isn't my place to call first; and I don't believe the colonel tells the truth when he says she wants to get acquainted with me." "Well, I always think people mean as they say, and I wish you would, too, Hester." "But it's very evident that she holds herself a great deal above me. She has no reason to, certainly, for her family wasn't half as respectable as mine. Mrs. David Potter knows all about them, root and branch, and she says that Mrs. Philpot's father kept a very low tavern in Norridge, and Mrs. Philpot herself tended the bar when she was a girl. But, somehow, Colonel Philpot happened to fall in love with her, and he sent her away to school, and then married her." "Well, that's nothing against her, is it?" "No, of course it wouldn't be, if she didn't carry her head so high now. But it's always the way with such persons--they never know how to bear prosperity. There wouldn't be anything said about her origin, if she didn't put on such airs; but, as long as she feels so lifted up, folks _will talk_, you know." "Perhaps you don't do her justice, Hester. You know nothing about her excepting what you've heard. At any rate, it would do no harm to call upon her."