"It is all so queer! Aunt Edith, they think the world is something good. And they want me to paint my face. And they call Aunt Temperance `Starch.' And they say I am only two years old. And they purse up their faces, and look as if it were something strange, if I quote the Bible. And they talk about being married as if it must happen, whether you would or not, and as if it were the only thing worth thinking about. And they seemed to think it was quite delightful to have a lot of gentlemen bowing at yon, and saying all sorts of silly things, and I thought it was horrid. And altogether, I didn't like it a bit, and I wanted to get home." "Lettice, I prayed God to keep thee, and I think He has kept thee. My dear heart, mayest thou ever so look on the world which is His enemy, and His contrary!" Edith's voice was not quite under her control--a most unusual thing with her. "Aunt Edith, I did think at first--when Mrs Rookwood came--that I should like it very well. I felt as if it would be such a pleasant change, you know, and--sometimes I have fancied for a minute that I should like to know how other maids did, and to taste their life, as it were, for a little while; because, you see, I knew we were so quiet, and other people seemed to have more brightness and merriment, and--well, I wanted to see what it was like." "Very natural, sweet heart, at thy years. I can well believe it." "And so, when Mrs Rookwood asked, I so hoped Grandmother would let me go. And I did enjoy the apple-gathering in the garden, and the games afterward in the hall. But when we sat down, and girls came up and talked to me, and I saw what they had inside their hearts--for if it had not been in their hearts, it would not have come on their tongues--Aunt Edith, I hope I shall never, never, _never_ have anything more to do with the world! I'd rather peel onions and scrub tiles every day of my life than live with people, and perhaps get like them, who could call my dear old Grandmother `Knitting-pins' in scorn, and tell God Himself that they only wanted to think of Him on Sundays. That world's another world, and I don't belong to it, and please, I'll keep out of it!"