Worried at first she had insulted the other young woman, but then as she observed a bit more, she thought she had said the right thing.  "Well, it is just being wasted in my old room back home in the hope chest.  I didn't want my mother to know that I could make a pillowcase out of it, but no one I know uses that many pillows."  She chuckled.

"I'll write the housekeeper, to gather it all up and send it to me here.  You can have your pick of it or all of it if you like it.  Or see if Ruth would like some of it as well, perhaps?"  She suggested, not wanting to favor one over the other.