L. T. Meade

“ For the rest of the evening Pauline was so pitied and fussed over, and made so thoroughly comfortable, that she began to think the black, black lie she had uttered quite a good thing.
“Here am I half out of my scrape,” she thought. “Now, if I can only persuade Nancy not to force us to go to that midnight picnic, and not to tell if we don’t go, and if I can get the thimble back, I shall be once more as happy as the day is long. This wicked black lie shall not frighten me. There is no other way out. I cannot possibly tell the truth. What would Nancy think if I did?” ”

“ I want you to be the sort of woman your mother would have wished you to be had she lived. I want you to grow up strong in mind and strong in body. I want you to be unselfish. I want you to look upon life as a great gift which you must not abuse, which you must make use of. I want you, Paulie, and your sisters to be the best in every sense of that great word. You will fail. We all fail at times; but there is forgiveness for each failure if you go to the right and only source. Have I said enough?”
“Yes,” said Pauline in a low voice. ”

“ Now, my dear girl, you will remember my little lecture. Pauline needs discipline. For that matter, you all need discipline. At first such treatment is hard, but in the end it is salutary.”
“Thank you, Aunt Sophy,” said Verena. “But perhaps,” she added, “you will try and remember, too, that kindness goes a long way. Pauline is perhaps the most affectionate of us all. In some ways she has the deepest feelings. But she can be awfully sulky, and only kindness can move her.”
“I quite understand, my dear; and when the time comes kindness will not be wanting. ”

“ She saw a small, rather round face, cheeks a little flushed, eyes very dark and bright, quantities of bright brown curling hair, dark pencilled eyebrows, a little nose, and a small pink mouth.
“You are a charming girl, Briar Dale,” she said, “worthy of a rose-pink blouse. Patty, don’t you just love yourself awfully?”
“I don’t know,” said Patty. “I suppose every one does.”
“The Bible says it is very wrong to love yourself,” said Adelaide. “You ought to love other people and hate yourself.”
“Well, I am made the contrary,” said Briar. “I hate other people and love myself. ”

“ Go away, my dear; go away.”
Penelope, in some wonder, and with a sense of disgust, not only with Nancy King and Miss Tredgold, but also with herself, left the room.
“I won’t tell her any more,” she thought. “She never seems to like what I do for her. She’d be pretty lonesome if it wasn’t for me; but she don’t seem to care for anybody. I’ll just rush away to nursey this very minute and tell her how I love being a schoolroom girl. I’ll tell her I dote on my lessons, and that I never for the big, big, wide world would be a nursery child again.” ”

“ But there comes a time when we neither murmur nor struggle nor rebel. When that time arrives the discipline has done its perfect work, and God removes it. My dear Verena, I am a woman old enough to be your mother. You must trust me, and believe that I am treating Pauline in the manner I am to-day out of the experience of life that God has given me. We are so made, my dear, that we none of us are any good until our wills are broken to the will of our Divine Master. ”

“ She is not your equal. You are not to know her as a friend. If you meet her, there is no reason why you should not be civil, but civility and friendship are different things. If the time comes when she is in need or in trouble, I should be deeply sorry to think you would not help her, but as a friend she is to cease to exist for you. This is my firm command to all of you girls. There are to be no two voices on the subject. You may not agree with me now, and you may think me hard, but I insist on having my own way. You cease to know Nancy King as a friend. ”

“ Influence, which springs from character, my dear Verena, is the highest power that any one can get. Now, an ignorant person has little or no influence; therefore, to be kind and sympathetic and useful in the future, you must know many things. You have not a minute to lose. I appeal to you for your mother’s sake; for my dear, dear sister would have liked her eldest child to be—ah, Verena!—so good and so true!”
“You touch me, Aunt Sophy,” said Verena, “when you talk of mother. You touch me more than words can say. Yes, I will try to be good ”

“ We can love each other without these marks of an obsolete and forgotten age. Kissing, my dear, is too silly to be endured in our day.”
That Miss Tredgold should kiss him was therefore an indignity which the miserable man was scarcely likely to get over as long as he lived.
“And now, girls,” said the good lady, turning round and facing her astonished nieces, “I have a conviction that your father and I would have a more comfortable conversation if you were not present. Leave the room, therefore, my dears. Go quietly and in an orderly fashion.” ”

“ Oh, anything I can do to help you, my dear sister, I shall be delighted to undertake. What is it? I beg of you to be brief, for time does fly. It was only a quarter of an hour ago that I found Homer——”
“I could say a very ugly word about Homer,” said Miss Tredgold. “Sometimes I wish that I were a man in order that I might swear hard at you, Henry Dale. As I am a woman I must refrain. Do you know that your daughter Pauline, your daughter Briar, your daughter Patty, and your extraordinary daughter Penelope are all of them about as naughty children as they can be. ”

“ I allude to Virgil’s Æneid.”
“Good heavens!” exclaimed Miss Tredgold, “is the man staring mad? Now, my dear fellow, you have got to put up with me. I can tell you plainly that it will be no treat to live with you. If it were not for my sister I would leave this house and let you and your family go your own way to destruction; but as Alice was so fond of me, and did her best for me when I was a little girl, I mean to do my best for your children.”
“But in what way, Sophia? I told you I was poor. I am poor. I cannot afford a governess. ”

“ The law of this house is the law of self-denial; isn’t it, Padre?”
“I begin to perceive that it is, Pauline. But whom are you talking of?”
“Now, Padre,” said Verena, “if you don’t wake and rouse yourself, and act like a decent Christian, you’ll be just prodded—you’ll be just shaken. We will do it. There are eight of us, and we’ll make your life a burden.”
“Eh—eh!” said Mr. Dale. “Really, girls, you are enough to startle a man. And you say——”
“I say, Paddy, that Miss Sophia Tredgold is on her way here. Each instant she is coming nearer. ”

“ Pauline turned and walked soberly by her sister’s side.
“Are you as tired as ever this morning, Paulie?” asked Verena.
“I am not tired at all,” replied Pauline.
Verena considered for a minute.
“Aunt Sophy is often anxious about you,” she said. “I can’t imagine why, but she is. She says that she doesn’t think you are at all strong.”
“Oh, I am!” interrupted Pauline. “I wish she wouldn’t worry about me. I wish you’d tell her not to worry. I am really as strong as any girl could be. Do tell her not to fret about me any more.” ”

“ Old maids are the queerest, dumpiest things on the earth. I’m really thankful I’m not bothered with any of them. Oh! here comes Pen. It’s nonsense to have a child like that out of the nursery. We’d best not say anything before her. Verena and Briar, will you walk down to the gate with me? I thought perhaps we might have the picnic in a week. It could be easily managed; you know it could.”
“Oh, we must go!” said Pauline.
“I’m going,” said Josephine.
But Verena was silent.
“Here’s your cabbage-leaf. How red your face looks!” said Penelope.
Nancy turned and gazed at her. ”