My Lady Ludlow

ady's well-trained servants, was shown into the room where I was trying to walk; for a ce

I don't think that Lady Ludlow expected Miss Galindo so soon to assume her clerkship; nor, indeed, had Mr.

to get these sleeves made"- and she took out of her basket a pail of brown-holland over-sleeves, very much such as a grocer's apprentice wears -"and I had only time to make seven or eight pens, out of some quills Farmer Thomson gave me last autumn. As for ink, I'm thankful to say, that's always ready; an ounce of steel filings, an ounce of nut-gall, and a pint of wate

"don't talk so my lady's

hould say, 'Answer me that, you goose!' But, as you're a relation of my lady's, I must be civil, a

duty of entertaining Miss Galindo, made my limping way into the next room. To tell the tru

much work that he almost required a clerk, for this morning he cannot find anything for Miss Galindo to do; and there she is, sitting with her pen behind her ear, waiting fo

ain, she sat down and be

n common - vulgarising them, as it were - is a bad thing for a nation. A man who hears prayers read in the cottage where he has just supped on bread and bacon, forgets the respect due to a church: he begins to think that one place is as good as another, and, by-and-by, that one person is as good as another; and after th

horror, I looked upon them almost as if they were rhinoceroses. I wanted to see a live Dissenter, I believe, and yet I wis

a Baptist, and has been in trade. What with his schismatism and Mr. Gray's m

dress and furniture, she clung to the old, to the modes which had prevailed when she was young; and though she had a deep personal regard for Queen Charlotte (to whom, as I have already said, she had been maid-of-honour), yet there was a tinge of Jacobitism about her, such as made her extremely dislike to hear Prince Charles Edward called the

er play cards, nor read, nor sew on the fifth of November and on the thirtieth of January, but must go to church, and meditate all the rest of the day - and very hard wo

othing but new things, and that what he first did was to attack all our established institutions, both in the village and the parish, and als

answer, 'That he was reading Susannah and the Elders, for that he had read Bel and the Dragon till he could pretty near say it off by heart, and they were two as pretty stories as ever he had read, and that it was a caution to him what bad old chaps there were in the world.' Now, as Job is bed-ridden, I don't think he is likely to meet with the Elders, and I say that I think repeating his Creed, the Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer, and, maybe, throwing in a verse of the Psalms, if he wanted a bi

it was a stil

masculine man-clerk. I see he can't find a fault - writing good, spelling correct, sums all right. And then he squints up at me with the tail of his eye, and looks glummer than ever, just because I'm a woman - as if I could help that. I have gone good lengths to set his mind at ease. I have stuck my pen behind my ear, I have made him a bow instead of a curtsey, I have whistled - not a tune I can't pipe up that - nay, if you won't tell my lady, I don't mind telling y

e Sally!

implying that, because she had let the beef get so overdone that I declare I could hardly find a bit for Nancy Pole's sick grandchild, she had chosen the better part. I was very much put about, I own, and perhaps you'll be shocked at what I said - indeed, I don't know if it was right myself - but I told her I had a soul as well as she, and if it was to be saved by my sitting still and thinking about salvation and never doing my duty, I thought I had as good a right as she had to be Mary, and save my soul. So, that af

ad-and-butter above everything, a

you have taken a turn towards godliness. It wi

e her none, and munched my dry bread myself, thinking what a famous cake I could make for little Ben Pole with the bit of butter we were saving; and wh

n all at the same time, for I don't see why it can't all be done, as God has set us to do it all.' But I heard he

onsider him as a very instrument of evil, and to expect to perceive in his face marks of his presumption, and arrogance, and impertinent interference. It was now many weeks since I had seen him, and when he was one morning shown into the blue drawing-room (into which I had been removed for a change), I was quite surprised to see how innocent and awkward a young man he appeared, confused even m

hed and coloured more than ever; but plun

must do something to alter their condition. I am quite aware that your ladyship disapproves of many of the plans which have suggested themselves

plan to remind people of decided opinions which they have once expressed, if you wish them to modify those opinions. Now

a moment or two b

ldly, very gently given. "In Mr. Mountford's time I heard no such complaints: whenever I see the village children (

ained to respect you in word and deed; you are the highe

p here every fourth of June, and drink his Majesty's health, and have buns, and (as Margaret Dawson can t

something higher than

lf was truly pious. Yet when she resumed the subject, it se

ay, the clergyman's fault. You must ex

aightforward speaking, I will meet what you say at once, and admit that it is the clergyman's fault, in a great measure, when the children of his parish swear, and curse, and are brutal, and ignorant of all saving grace; nay, some of them of the very name of God. And because this guilt of mine, as the clergyman of this parish, lies heavy on my soul, and every day leads but from bad to worse, till I am utterly be

peaking, in an agitated, nervous kind of way, and now he was interru

lass of water, and l

evils. It is always the case with us when we are not strong in health. I hear of your exerting yourself in ev

re that now they were brought face to face, she had quite forgotten all the offence she had taken at his doings when she heard of them fro

at I am sure no one who had seen it could have ever thought him conceited again. "The evil of this world is too st

ice of an old woman about yourself. You are not fit to do anything just now but attend to your own health: rest, and see a doctor (but,

nforce some old feudal right, by which no building is allowed on leasehold property without the sanction of the lady of the manor. It may be all very true; but it was a cruel thing to do - that is, if your ladyship had known (which I am sure you do not) the real moral and spiritual state of my poor parishioners. And now I come to you to know what I am to do. Rest! I cannot rest, while children whom I could possibly save are being left in their ignorance, their blasphemy, their uncleanness, t

of ordering themselves lowly and reverently to all their betters. I have made this conviction of mine tolerably evident to you; and I have expressed distinctly my disapprobation of some of your ideas. You may imagine, then, that I was not well pleased when I found that you had taken a rood or more of Farmer Hale's land, and were laying the foundations of a school-house. You had done this without asking for my permission, which, as Farmer Hale's liege lady, ought to have been obtained legally, as well as asked for out of courtesy. I put a st

em in the next world? I must be found to have some power beyond what they have, and which they are rendered capable

your own admission,

our knowledge; but if they could conceal it from you, the knowledge of your disl

tle indignation -"they and their fathers have

and wearied out. "Then, my lady," said he, at last, rising as he spoke, "you can suggest nothing to ameliorate the state of things which, I do assure you, does exist on your lands,

ation). "Give me time to consider of it. Tell me what you wish to teach. You will be able to take care of your heal

ess, while the idea of delay was evidently a sore irritation. I heard him say: "And

for whom, at her sign, I had rung the bell s

ou must permit me to send you half-a-dozen bottles, and, depend upon it, you will take a more cheerful view of life and its duties before you have finished them, especially if you will be so kind as to see Dr. Tre

rfectly well; I can set to work tomorrow; I will do anything not to be oppressed with the thought of how little I am doing. I do not want your wine. Liberty to act in the manner

ee that she had a little hesitation before she took it. He then saw me, I almost think, for the first time; and put out his hand once mor

ady was not one to speak out her feelings on the subject; nor was I one to forget myself, and begin on a topic which she did not begin. She came

hat Medlicott and I can decide upon in the way of strengthening dainties for that

said I, and t

hat?" as

Farmer Hale's barn at once, it

was displeased, "he is not fit for more work j

range physical comforts and cures for poor Mr. Gr

has fallen from a tree, and broken his thigh

who read my letter? It all comes f