"Please, Aunt Kezia, don't be angry, but what is become of Cecilia
Osborne?"
"I dare say you will know, Cary, before I do. She went to London, I
believe."
"Oh, I don't want to see her, Aunt Kezia."
"Then you are pretty sure to do it."
"But why did she not--" I was afraid to go on.
"Why did she not keep her word? You can ask her if you want to know.
Don't say I wanted to know, that's all. I don't."
"But how was it, Aunt Kezia?" said I, for I was on fire with curiosity.
Flora made an attempt to check me.
"You are both welcome to know all I know," said my Aunt: "and that is,
that she spent one evening at the Fells with us, and the Hebblethwaites
and Mr Parmenter were there: the next day we saw nothing of her, and on
the evening of the third there came a little note to me--a dainty little
pink three-cornered note, all over perfume--in which Miss Cecilia
Osborne presented her compliments to Mrs Kezia Courtenay, and begged to
say that she found herself obliged to go to London, and would have set
out before the note should reach me. That is as much as I know, and
more than I want to know."
"And she did not say when she was coming back?"
"Not in any hurry, I fancy," said my Aunt Kezia, grimly.
"Going to stop away altogether?"
"She's welcome," answered my Aunt, in the same tone.
"Then who will live at Fir Vale?" asked Flora.
"Don't know. The first of you may that gets married. Don't go and do
it on purpose."
Annas seemed much diverted. I wanted very much to know how Father had
taken Cecilia's flight, but I did not feel I could ask that.
"Any more questions, young ladies?" saith my Aunt Kezia, quizzically.
"We will get them done first, if you please."
"I beg your pardon, Aunt," said I. "Only I did want to know so much."
My Aunt Kezia gave a little laugh. "My dear, curiosity is Eve's legacy
to her daughters. You might reasonably feel it in this instance. I
should almost have thought you unfeeling if you had not. However, that
business is all over; and well over, to my mind. I am thankful it is no
worse. Now for what I want to say to you. I have been turning over in
my mind how I might say to you what would be likely to do you good, in
such a way that you could easily bear it in mind. And I have settled to
give you a few plain rules, which you will find of service if you follow
them. Now don't you go saying to yourselves that Aunt Kezia is an old
country woman who knows nothing of grand town folks. As I was beginning
to say when you interrupted me, Cary--there, don't look abashed, child;
I am not angry with you--manners change, but natures don't. Dress men
and women how you will, and let them talk what language you please, and
have what outside ways you like, they are men and women still. Wherever
you go, you will find human nature is unchanged; and the Devil that
tempts men is unchanged; and the God that saves them is unchanged.
There are more senses than one, lassies, in which the things that are
seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal."
My Aunt Kezia began to feel in her bag--that great print bag with the
red poppies and blue cornflowers, and the big brass top, by which I
should know my Aunt Kezia was near if I saw it in the American
plantations, or in the moon, for that matter--and out came three little
books, bound in red sheepskin. Such pretty little books! scarcely the
size of my hand, and with gilded leaves.
"Now, girls," she said, "I brought you these for keepsakes. They are
only blank paper, as you see, and you can put down in them what you
spend, or what you see, or any good sayings you meet with, or the like--
just what you please: but you will find my rules written on the first
leaf, so you can't say you had not a chance to bear them in mind. Miss
Annas, my dear, I hope I don't make too free, but you see I did not like
to leave you out in the cold, as it were. Will you accept one of them?
They are good rules for any young maid, though I say it."
"How kind of you, Mrs Kezia!" said Annas. "Indeed I will, and value it
very much."
I turned at once--indeed, I think we all did--to my Aunt Kezia's rules.
They were written, as she said, on the first page, in her neat, clear
handwriting, which one could read almost in the dark. This is what she
had written.
"Put the Lord first in everything.
"Let the approval of those who love you best come second.
"Judge none by the outside, till you have seen what is within.
"Never take compliment for earnest.
"Never put off doing a right or kind thing.
"If you doubt a thing being right, it is safe not to do it.
"If you know a thing to be right, go on with it, though the world stand
in your way.
"`If sinners entice thee, consent thou not.'
"`If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.' Never wait to
confess sin and be forgiven.
"In all that is not wrong, put the comfort of others before your own.
"Think it possible you may be mistaken.
"Test everything by the Word of God.
"Remember that the world passeth away."
Flora was the first of us to speak.
"Thank you, indeed, Aunt Kezia for taking so much trouble for us. If we
govern ourselves by your rules, we can hardly go far wrong."