There is yet one thing of which I fear you are not yet fully sensible. I mean the fault of contracting debts. ALICIA. But—you think—perhaps— MRS. LEYSTER. Hear me, my dear. In the first place, the allowance your mother made you, was really an ample one. Even if it had not been, as she who knew what you could afford to spend, thought it such, you had no right to exceed it. To be happy, we must learn to live within our income. Not only justice requires this, but our own comfort, for nothing can be so harassing as a consciousness of owing what we have not been able to pay. ALICIA. Oh, I am well aware of that, but I knew I should be able to pay at some time or other. MRS. LEYSTER. Yes my dear, but consider if everybody acted thus; those you employ would have no ready money to pay those who work for them. Many poor persons, who live by their daily earnings, must perish with want. Add to this, you pay more than you ought for every article and are entirely precluded giving anything in charity. ALICIA. Pardon me, dear aunt; I always gave a little out of what I had. MRS. LEYSTER. But what right had you to give money, which of right belonged to another? Every person should pay their honest debts, before they can be truly charitable. You feel this mortifying, but is it not just? ALICIA. I believe so— MRS. LEYSTER. It is indeed humiliating to feel that one has wantonly thrown themselves on the forbearance of others, who if they please, may expose us to everybody, as a person who wants justice so much as to contract debts they know they cannot pay. CONSTANTIA. Oh, Mama. ALICIA. Nay, I deserve it all; I feel that I do. MRS. LEYSTER. Believe me, my dear Alicia, my earnest manner arises only from my sincere wish to convince you of your error. When once a person has contracted a habit of buying whatever strikes their fancy, or of overstepping their income a little every quarter, ruin is the certain consequence. The sum though trifling at first, will accumulate every year and finally consume the principal. Add to this the distress our extravagance or carelessness may bring upon the labouring poor, and you will say the want of economy is no trifling sin. ALICIA. Ah madam, I am fully convinced. I will immediately write to my mother and tell her so. I will acknowledge my punishment is just. But why do I say, punishment? I am convinced this visit, which I thought such a misfortune, will prove the happiest event of my life. CONSTANTIA. I am sure it will of mine, since of a cousin I had never seen, I hope I have now a friend whom I shall always love.