Mrs. Newton Crosland

“ My sister, vex her no more; you have obtained the crown from her; is not that sufficient? must you triumph over her also?”
“Pshaw,” replied Lisette, sullenly, “I like to punish jealous people, it does them good.”
“But can you be happy?” said Victorine; “can you be at peace, when another is suffering, I grieve to own, severely?”
“And why not?” she answered. “If Caliste could, she would have been Rosiere, and would not then have cared for my feelings. I have no necessity, then, to spare hers. ”

“ Caliste may speak rudely, but she will do you a kindness; as to Lisette, she is wrapped up in selfishness and conceit.”
Such were the comments made upon two of the chosen maidens of Salency; and whoever will remember that the heart is full of evil, will no longer wonder at the faults of these young girls. Both Caliste and Lisette kept up an outward semblance of virtue, the one from pride, the other from the desire of being flattered and admired; but as the motives which guided their actions were not all powerful, the moment they were really tried they failed in influencing their conduct. ”

“ My peace is the peace of the heart; the peace that a young child feels upon its mother’s knee. My Heavenly Father’s arms I know are around me; they will, I feel assured, never be withdrawn; and whilst I do what He points out as right to be done, the peace and confidence of the loved child no earthly power can take from my mind. Dear uncle, Dorsain, I must not then accept your kind offer, for I must now give the comfort of sympathy to my sorrowing Caliste ”

“ I ought to comfort Caliste, and I only can, because she feels that the Rosiere is a younger sister to me, as well as to herself.”
D’Elsac could not be offended by such a refusal. “Victorine,” he said, “pray tell me upon what motive do you act?”
She smiled, though the tear still trembled on her eyelid, as she replied playfully, “By the same motive, uncle Dorsain, which you acknowledged just now. I too love peace. I love it dearly, but pardon me if I say that the peace after which I pursue is not of so transient a nature as yours. You seek but the peace of good nature and cheerful countenances. ”

“ Surely she cannot long remain in such total ignorance of her own bad conduct. And this is the Rosiere, the chosen maiden of the village! Oh, Salenciens, how ignorant must you be! how dark must be your state when, judging only by outward seemings, you crowned this girl for virtue! D’Elsac shed tears when he thought of this, and when he remembered that Caliste was the one chosen next to her sister, he wept still more bitterly for the state of the human race in general. Alas! he inquired, where does virtue dwell? It has been imagined to leave the crowded cities, and to reside in lowly cottages ”

“ Dorsain was alarmed by the wild expression of her eye as she spoke, and he even ventured to hint his fears to Valmont on her departure, but the father laughed them to scorn, declaring it was, as Lisette said, mere jealousy; and if she stayed away from the ceremony it would injure her character fearfully in all Salency.
“She must learn to command herself,” he added, “she is now nineteen; and if she cannot command herself now, what will become of her?”
Thus ill or well was poor Caliste to be dragged through the ceremony; and after an early dinner the family of Durocher retired to dress. ”

“ The manner, perhaps, more than the words of Caliste, was an intimation to the neighbours to depart, and as they left the cottage, the woman to whom she more particularly addressed her looks, vented her displeasure in words.
“How intolerably proud that girl is!” she said; “and, after all, her sister Lisette is by far handsomer. I think Victorine, too, is very pretty; and as to Mimi, there is no doubt she will soon be her superior in beauty.” ”

“ Madame Durocher patted Mimi on the head, and held out her other hand to Victorine, as she kindly said, “Well, my dear girl, I cannot help being somewhat vexed; you are a good girl, Victorine, a very good girl; and it is quite excusable in a mother to regret that her child does not share in the triumphs of virtue. ”

“ Somerton had not found her distinguished by the gentleness and humility she had hoped to recognise in her character. For the proud and vain are always selfish, and perhaps Harriet Mannering had been quite unconscious that, while eagerly bent on her own enjoyment and frivolous gratification, her conduct had been narrowly watched. ”

“ Yet she could not refrain from asking if his father were willing he should marry one poor and humble as herself.
“Think not, dear Mary,” he replied, “that I would tempt you to disobedience by setting you the example. I am almost sure my father has spoken to Mr. Mannering this morning on the same subject, and here our parents come to complete our happiness by giving their sanction.”
And so it was. Dr. Vernon kissed her affectionately as he said, “My son has chosen wisely and well. A dutiful daughter will make a good wife; and though now he is rich, he knows how mutable is all earthly fortune. ”

“ He said it would make the thing so interesting, if three out of one family were striving for the rose.”
“Can it be possible,” said Victorine, all astonishment, “that anybody can be so ignorant of human nature, as to set three sisters to strive against each other, to rouse up envy and jealousy in their minds, to make them grieve to hear that their own sister is looked upon favourably by their neighbours and friends, because by that favourable notice they will he rejected? ”

“ Here she was bid to kneel before the priest, and, for the first time that day did the cheek of Lisette turn paler than heretofore. She bent her beautiful head upon her bosom, whilst her suppliant attitude and her extreme youth made D’Elsac for awhile forget her selfish conduct, and to feel with Margoton there was cause to triumph in being so nearly connected to that fair young creature. All the villagers stood round; the Rosiere’s crown, being then taken from the high altar, was presented to Monsieur le Prieur by a priest. ”

“ D’Elsac inquired if after the ceremony the Rosiere was peculiarly noticed amongst the Salenciens.
“Monsieur de Montforlaine has given an annual rent of one hundred and twenty livres to the Rosiere,” replied Victorine, “and this gives the office some consequence. Those too who have been Rosieres are always treated with respect in Salency, even after their reign is over.”
“Then Caliste will have to endure Lisette’s superiority very long,” said Dorsain.
“Till the time she is herself Rosiere,” she replied; “at least whilst she remains in Salency.” ”

“ The quiet man was somewhat startled by her manner, and he looked at her earnestly, half alarmed by her wild and extravagant merriment. He soon remarked that the smile seemed only to be on her lip, for every now and then her countenance changed, and expressed the deep dejection he had noticed on his entrance. He saw too that Victorine laughed not with her, and did all that was in her power to check her exuberant gaiety. The steady look that Dorsain gave her at once put to flight all assumed merriment ”

“ Margoton and Valmont had for some time felt how painful it was to meet their neighbours, those very neighbours who had assisted in the triumph of Lisette; and, as Caliste’s conduct was not free from suspicion, they replied to D’Elsac in a way he little expected, by proposing that they should sell their little property in Salency, and all go to live near Grenoble, where he might take first one and then the other of their children, without choosing one in preference to her sisters. ”

“ She was not ignorant; she had, as it were, peeped, through books and conversations with her father, at the vast stores of knowledge and learning which human reason has been permitted to accumulate; and, though she knew how little, in the longest life, could really be mastered, in comparison with the mighty whole, she also knew that one of the purest pleasures that life affords proceeds from acquiring the sort of information which opens to our view the wonders of creation. ”

“ D’Elsac sorrowed as one without hope, for his religion taught him that without merit no man can see the Lord; and still grieving he felt the hand of some person upon his shoulder, and looking round he perceived it was Margoton.
“Brother,” she said, “our dear child is, I trust, better. I have left Victorine to attend her, indeed she will not let Victorine go out of her sight; but Valmont thought we had better make our appearance, if only for an hour, at Lisette’s fête. ”

“ Valmont next spoke with some bitterness to Caliste, and then left the apartment in displeasure.
With some difficulty, D’Elsac supported, or rather carried, Caliste to the chamber above; for her father’s words had so grieved her that she was immediately taken worse; and then, leaving her to her mother and Victorine, he left the cottage, unable to sleep, thinking that a walk in the quiet moonlight would do him good. ”

“ Then the little girls, Fanny and Lucy, were so clever and industrious, that they would make clothes for the poor, either by purchasing coarse but warm materials with their own money, or from cast off frocks of their own, which their mamma gave them permission so to employ. Like all those who think more of other persons than themselves, and who are constantly enjoying the pleasure of doing good, they were light-hearted and happy; while their cousin Charles, who thought of nothing but his own selfish interests, was three days out of the four in bad spirits and bad temper. ”

“ With peace goes love, and is not ‘love thy neighbour as thyself,’ the blessed Commandment given us by our Lord?”
D’Elsac, however, did not agree on this point, and he told her so, while, secretly, he congratulated himself on not having been too hasty in his choice. “I might have taken this heretic home,” he thought, “and so near Geneva as we are, she would have all the encouragement one heretic ever gives another. Let me be cautious, therefore, I will watch Caliste and Lisette carefully, before I select one as a daughter.” ”

“ I am allowed free intercourse with my family; and though my bible is taken from me, yet I ought, and am very thankful, for the indulgence shown to me.”
“But why do you disapprove this fête, Victorine?” asked D’Elsac. “Does it not encourage virtue?”
p. 68“Dearest uncle,” she replied, “what is virtue? Are not we full of sin and corrupt before God, and will not such a strife as this encourage envy, hatred, and malice amongst us? Are we not driving peace from our breasts and our firesides, uncle Dorsain, and can we expect to be holier or better when she is banished from us? ”

“ Thus, I agree with you that people should not look upon common honesty as anything beyond a simple duty which they would be culpable not to perform. But I am as well assured that honesty, even in this world, meets with its reward, as I am that it is our duty, when we find the poor and uneducated distinguished by this quality, to show our sense of it, and so make ourselves the instruments of this earthly reward, by every means in our power. I addressed you, Charles, on the subject, because I fondly hoped it would give you pleasure to offer some assistance in the matter ”

“ Mary had acquired one valuable piece of information. She knew enough to understand how very trifling was the sum of all her knowledge; it may be remarked that very ignorant persons are almost always the most conceited. Such individuals have no more idea of knowledge than those born blind or deaf can have of sight or sound. But the gentle humble-minded Mary Mannering was a very opposite character. ”

“ Now don’t be such a miser, Charles, do turn them out.”
“I shall do no such thing!” exclaimed Charles, in an angry tone, “and as for your extravagance, it is quite shocking; I wonder what you think is to become of you when you are a man.”
“I tell you what I expect,” replied William, throwing some apples from his pocket out of window to a poor child who was passing; “what I expect is, to have to work very hard for my living, and, as I am the eldest, I look upon it that I ought to do something for mamma, and the girls into the bargain. ”