"I was coming to your house myself in a day or two, about some business, if you had not come here." "Yes," said Anne Sophia.

"I understand that you have been buying our house away from over our heads, and are going to turn us out of house and home." "Oh, no," said Mary Erskine, smiling, "not at all.

In the first place, I have not really bought the house yet, but am only talking about it; and in the second place, if I buy it, I shall not want it myself, but shall wish to have you live in it just as you have done." "You will not want it yourself!" exclaimed Anne Sophia, astonished.
"No," said Mary Erskine, "I am only going to buy it as an investment." There were so many things to be astonished at in this statement, that Anne Sophia hardly knew where to begin with her wonder.

First, she was surprised to learn that Mary Erskine had so much money.

When she heard that she had bought the house, she supposed of course that she had bought it on credit, for the sake of having a house in the village to live in.