Sophia tried Canadian politics, owning her ignorance and expressing her desire to understand what she had read in the newspapers since her arrival; but Miss Bennett was not sure that there was anything that "could exactly be called politics" in Canada, except that there was a Liberal party who "wanted to ruin the country by free trade." Sophia ceased to take the initiative.

She still endeavoured to respect the understanding of a girl of whom she had heard that when her father's fortunes were at a low ebb she had retrieved them by good management and personal industry--a girl, too, who through years of toil had preserved sprightliness and perfect gentility.

What though this gentility was somewhat cramped by that undue importance given to trifles which is often the result of a remote life; it was still a very lovely thing, a jewel shining all the more purely for its iron setting of honest labour.
Sophia fought with the scorn that was thrusting itself into her heart as she listened when Miss Bennett now talked in a charming way about the public characters and incidents which interested her.
"I wish for your sake, Miss Rexford," she said, "that some of the Royal family would come out again.

The only time that there is any real advantage in being in a colony is when some of them come out; for here, you know, they take notice of every one." "One would still be on the general level then," said Sophia, smiling.
"Well, I don't know.

It makes one feel distinguished, you know, in spite of that.