Lucy Ellen Guernsey

“ I believed it too, though I dared not dwell on the thought for a moment.
"I know my aunt and Mrs. Alice think so!" she continued. "I should be content, Lucy, only for you. My life has not been long, but I have learned that this world is a sad place for motherless girls."
"You must not talk, my dearest, you will exhaust yourself!" was all I could say.
"It will not hurt her!" said Lady Thornyhaugh, in a whisper from behind the curtain. "Let her say her say and ease her mind."
"I am ready to go!" repeated Amabel. "But, oh, Lucy! I want to see my father and Walter. ”

“ Thorpe, is my father a Catholic?" asked Amabel, going to the point, as usual.
"My dear, that is more than I can tell you," answered Mrs. Thorpe. "His father and mother were so, and he was brought up in that way. My own impression is that he is not much of anything."
"You do not mean that he has no religion at all!" said Amabel, startled.
"If he hasn't, he is not the only one,—more's the pity say I," answered the good woman. "But in England just now, as I understand is the case here, a great many fine gentlemen profess infidelity just as they carry clouded canes and tortoise-shell snuff-boxes. ”

“ This, I am sure, is Amabel, from her looks, and this Cornish girl is Lucy Corbet. You are your father's girl, child, as Amabel is her mother's," looking at me with a curious contraction of her mouth, as of one in momentary pain. "Your father was a goodly and gallant man, child. I knew him well. And your mother was one of whom the world was not worthy. There, be a good girl and you shall never want a friend while I live. And you are Amabel, eh!" turning to her. "You are a beauty like your mother, but beauty is a fading flower—you know that, don't you?" ”

“ At the same time, I can't help remembering a word she let drop—'I must positively have you with me. Nothing draws like a new face.' Don't you recollect?"
I did recollect, and my ever ready pride brought the blood to my cheeks, as I thought of being used as a decoy to capture the kind of game which Lady Throckmorton affected. "Well, I know one thing, I wish we had never seen her!" said I.
"We never should have seen her probably, if we had obeyed Mrs. Thorpe's hints, and stayed up stairs," answered Amabel. "But come, never mind her. Hear me play over my lesson." ”

“ Desireè, who was near, laughed her little sneering laugh.
"A dog is not people—he is only a brute beast!" said she.
"Arslan is a great deal more like people than some girls I know!" said I, hotly resentful both for Arslan and Amabel.
"Tut, tut, little pepper pot!" said the mother, smiling at my vehemence. "A dog is not people, but he has affections, and I am glad my little Aimeè regards them. If we thought always as tenderly as thou of the feelings of our friends, it would be all easy world to live in." ”

“ Chloe. "And we know, niece, that there are evil spirits, and such creatures allowed to go about, and why may they not be near us at any time?"
"They may and they may not!" replied Amabel. "We cannot see them, and nothing has been told us about them, so we do not know; but we do know that we are all the time in God's presence. He is always near at hand, to protect and care for us."
"That is very true, Niece Leighton—very true indeed," said Mrs. Chloe, as if struck with a new idea. "He is every where, and so He must be here. ”

“ Say no more than you know to be true," said Mrs. Deborah, gravely.
"I'm sure I beg your pardon, Mrs. Deborah, ma'am, if I spoke disrespectful," said Mary. "But oh, Mrs. Deborah! Oh, ladies! Do save my poor young lady! They will kill her among them. They have shut her up alone in her room with no one near her, only that wicked French woman takes her her meals, and poor meals they are. Even Mrs. Wilson is not allowed to go to her. And, Mrs. Deborah, the wolf howled last night! I heard him myself, and so did all of us, and Harry says it bodes some great misfortune. ”

“ Amabel, don't you know when we first looked at the picture of the wolf-lady, we wondered who it was like?"
"Yes; why?"
"It is like Lady Leighton. Don't you see she has the same blue-green eyes and thin lips, and the same look of watchfulness? Perhaps, after all, that was her relation calling for her."
"Don't say such horrid things," answered Amabel, shuddering. "I can see the likeness you speak of, however. But, Lucy, you will never be able to stay here. It is not right that you, a young lady of fortune and family, should be exposed to such indignities. You must go to Aunt Deborah. ”

“ Had I not been taught by my former spiritual guides that falsehood was a venial sin, and might even become a virtue in the cause of religion?
But I knew now who was speaking to me, and how to answer him. I threw myself on my knees and prayed earnestly for help and direction, and I had it. It could never be right to do evil that good might come. I did not believe that Mr. Cheriton was unfaithful. I had evidence to the contrary under my hand, and I should be a base liar and slanderer if I told Amabel what I did not myself believe. ”

“ Thorpe blushed like a young girl.
"Oh, yes. Have you not heard? He has a parish in London, among the French weavers, where he is doing a great deal of good."
"I am right glad to hear it," said Amabel. "He is an excellent man."
"Then, perhaps, you will not be sorry to hear that he—that I—in short, we are going to be married!" said Mrs. Thorpe, smiling, in the midst of her confusion, at our astonishment. "You see, he is such a babe in the woods in respect of English ways, and needs some one to care for him, and I thought I could do as much good in that way as any other. ”

“ Mrs. Deborah Watched her down the stairs, as a dog watches the retreat of some intruder, whom he has half a mind to fly at and rend. She then shut the door, and returned to her seat.
"What does this mean?" she asked. "Have you set up gadding already? How came you to know this fine lady?"
Amabel told her the story of our adventures, and her knitted brows gradually relaxed, especially when I took the blame on myself, saying that I thought Amabel would not have gone but for me.
"Well, well! You are but young, and as new to the world as callow goslings!" said she. ”

“ Wesley, I assure you!" Mr. Thorpe hastened to say. "I would go to hear him to-morrow, if he came this way; and I like him all the better for talking as though he himself believed what he said. I can understand a man's refusing to consider or believe in the Christian religion at all, but how a man can profess to believe in it, and even make a business of preaching it, and yet be perfectly indifferent and careless about the matter—that passes my comprehension. It seems to me that religion must be all or nothing." ”

“ Then instead of seeking the door by which Amabel and myself had descended to the vaults, we went down to the basement by a staircase of which I had never, till then, known the existence. So true it is, as I have said before, that one may live in a convent a long time, yes, even for many years, and yet know very little about it. We passed through a long hall, with doors opening here and there, and then there was a pause, while Mother Prudentia unlocked and opened a massive door, the existence of which I should never have suspected, for it looked exactly like a piece of the wall. ”

“ In answer I gave her an account of our visit to Lady Throckmorton.
"Just like her!" was the comment. "What's bred in the bone stays long in the blood. I keened her mother before her, and she was just such another. A fine guardian, truly, to set over his daughter. Aweel, Lucy Corbet, I am no Papist nor favorer of Papists, or of them that would bring them back on this land, but, saving their religion, I would wish you and my niece were safe back yonder in your convent. Poor children! This world is a hard place for motherless lassies." ”

“ I do not understand it."
"Every one has not a vocation!" said Amabel.
"But if a vocation pleases God most, then every one ought to have it!" I persisted.
"I have heard Mother Prudentia say, that the religious were like the cream that rises to the top of the milk!" said Amabel. "The skimmed milk may have its uses too."
"The skimmed milk may have its uses, but I don't believe it is the best for the children!" I returned. "And that is what they get, poor things, if all the best women are to become nuns, and leave only the second-rate ones to become mothers and bring up the little ones." ”

“ I answered: "but I don't see how to help it now; we cannot find our way home alone, through this great town, especially as it is growing dark. If Mrs. Thorpe wanted us, she would send for us."
"True!" said Amabel. "She knows where we are, and could send Timothy for us."
She had done so, we found afterwards, but we were not told of it.
"We must do as my lady bids us, till we can get away; but Lucy! I do not like her, nor this place."
"Nor I!" I answered. "I feel as if we had got into the hands of the fairy Melusene, that Mother Prudentia told us of. ”

“ Cheriton. "My sin hath found me out."
"Hush!" said Mrs. Deborah, raising her hand. "You young people think you have all to bear. Is it nothing to me to have that woman come into my place,—knowing her as I do? To see my only brother besotted with a—Oh me, oh me! How shall I ever tell Chloe?"
And Mrs. Deborah broke down in a burst of bitter weeping, dreadful to see in one usually so self-restrained. We were all about her in a moment. She clasped Amabel in her arms, and laying her head on her shoulder as she knelt on the floor, she sobbed bitterly. ”

“ You can no more use another man's judgment in such matters, than you can breathe with his lungs. A man asserts his ownership of an estate just as much by giving it away all in a lump, as if he bestowed it by ten shillings at a time."
"I should like to read the Bible, if it is not wrong," said Amabel. "The bits we used to read with Father Brousseau in his great English Bible were so interesting. But I used to wonder why he never showed us those places where the Lord's disciples worshipped the Holy Virgin, and where he taught them about the worship and traditions of the Church." ”

“ Deborah had spoken, and sat down to await the carriages which were slowly toiling up the hill.
"I wonder whether we shall find a sleeping beauty?" said I. "As for the dragon, we have brought that along, I think."
"She is certainly a trial," said Amabel. "I do not so much mind her myself, but it does stir me to hear her speak so to poor Aunt Chloe. Do you know, Lucy, I don't believe Aunt Chloe is long for this world?" ”

“ Philippa had addressed to Mrs. Deborah for more than twenty years, it is perhaps no wonder that Mrs. Chloe dropped her tea-cup, and that Amabel and I both tried so hard to look unconcerned, that it was well no strangers were present.
Mrs. Deborah however answered as quietly as though she had been chatting with her sister all day.
"The cheese-cakes are much as usual, Sister Philippa. It is perhaps that exercise has given you a better appetite."
"Possibly!" replied Mrs. Philippa with a smile. "You were always famous for your cheese-cakes, Sister Deborah." ”

“ Look at Lady Throckmorton, how she goes about to the Bath, and Cheltenham, and everywhere she pleases."
"I would rather be the poorest lay sister in a convent—I would rather teach a village school all my days, than to be Lady Throckmorton!" returned Amabel, with more vehemence than was at all common with her. "I think such people as she are the greatest fools in the world. They are like the little silly sparrows Lucy and I saw yesterday, building in the house that was at that moment being torn down. ”

“ I wasted a good deal of conjecture upon my probably position at Highbeck Hall—such was the name of the place where Amabel's aunt lived. I thought of the story of Mary Lowther which we had heard in the morning, and wondered—rather scared at myself for doing so—whether Protestants were after all such bad people, and whether bringing up motherless children, or even children of one's own, was not as high a vocation as building oneself up in a hole in the wall, and living in rags and dirt for twenty years. ”