Sure, Things must have come to a pretty Pass, when Father was brought to take his Meals in the Kitchen! a Thing he had never been accustomed to in his Life, save at _Chalfont_, by Reason of the Parlour being so small. And the Words, both as to Sense and Choice, which _Betty_ put into his Mouth, betrayed the Counterfeit, by favouring over-much of the Scullion. "God have Mercy, _Betty_! I see thou wilt perform according to thy Promise, in providing me such Dishes as I think fit whilst I live; and when I die, thou knowest I have left thee all!" Phansy Father talking like that! Were I not so provoked, I could laugh. And he to sell his Children's Birthright for a Mess of Pottage, who, instead of loving savoury Meat, like blind _Isaac_, was, in fact, the most temperate of Men! who cared not what he ate, so 'twas sweet and clean; who might have said with godly Mr. _Ball_ of _Whitmore_, that he had two Dishes of Meat to his Sabbath-dinner,--a Dish of hot Milk, and a Dish of cold Milk; and that was enough and enough. Whose Drink was from the Well;--often have I drawn it for him at _Chalfont!--_and who called Bread-and-butter a lordly Dish;--often have I cut him thick Slices, and brought him Cresses from the Spring! Well placed he his own Principle and Practice in the Chorus's Mouth, where they say, "Oh, Madness! to think Use of strongest Wines And strongest Drinks our chief Support of Health!" So that Story carries its Confutation with it: _Ned Phillips_ says so, too. As to what passed, that _July_ Forenoon, between him and Uncle _Kit_, before the latter left Town in the _Ipswich_ Coach, and with _Betty Fisher_ fidgetting in and out of the Chamber all the Time . . . he may, or may not have called us his unkind Children; for we can never tell what Reasons had been given him to make him think us so. That must stand over. How many human Misapprehensions must do the same! Enough that one Eye sees all, that one Spirit knows all . . . even all our Misdoings; or else, how could we bear to tell Him even the least of them? But it requires great Faith in the greatly wronged, to obtain that Calm of Mind, all Passion spent, which some have arrived at. When we can stand firm on that Pinnacle, _Satan_ falls prone. He sets us on that dizzy Height, as he did our Master; saying, in his taunting Fashion,-- "There stand, if thou canst stand; to stand upright Will ask thee Skill;" but the Moment he sees we can, down he goes himself!--falls whence he stood to see his Victor fall! This is what Man has done, and Man may do,--and Woman too; the Strength, for asking, being promised and given. End of Project Gutenberg's Mary Powell & Deborah's Diary, by Anne Manning