"Oh, of course, if you--" said Amelia, and did not go on. "Things look very different, sometimes, according to the side on which you see them," saith my Aunt Kezia. I could not help thinking that people did so. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. Emily was used during the last century as a diminutive for Amelia. There is really no etymological connection between the two names. Note 2. In and about London, the name of jumbles is given to a common kind of gingerbread, to be obtained at the small sweet-shops: but these are not the old English jumball of the text. Note 3. There was no Queen at this time. Augusta of Saxe Gotha was Princess of Wales, and the King had three grown-up unmarried daughters. Note 4. This provincialism is correct for Lancashire, and as far as I know for Cumberland. CHAPTER THREE. THE HUNT-SUPPER. "Alas! what haste they make to be undone!" GEORGE HERBERT. Before he went away, Ephraim came up into the window where I sat with my knitting. Mr Parmenter was gone then, and Cecilia was up-stairs with Fanny and Amelia. "Cary," said he, "may I ask you a question?" "Why, Ephraim, I thought you did that every day," I said, feeling rather diverted at his saying such a thing. "Ah, common questions that do not signify," said he, with a smile. "But this is not an insignificant question, Cary; and it is one that I have no right to ask unless you choose to give it me." "Go on, Ephraim," said I, wondering what he meant. "Are you very fond of Miss Osborne?" "I never was particularly fond of her," I said, rather hotly, and I felt my cheeks flush; "and if I had been, I think this morning would have put an end to it." "She is not true," he said. "She rings like false metal. Those who trust in her professions will find the earth open and let them in. And I should not like you to be one, Cary." "Thank you, Ephraim," said I. "I think there is no fear." "Your Cousin Amelia is foolish," he went on, "but I do not think she is false. She will grow out of most of her nonsense. But Cecilia Osborne never will. It is ingrain. She is an older woman at this moment than Mrs Kezia." "Older than my Aunt Kezia!" I am afraid I stared. "I do not mean by the parish register, Cary," said Ephraim, with a smile. "But she is old in Satan's ways and wiles, in the hard artificial fashions of the world, in everything which, if I had a sister, I should pray God she might never know anything about. Such women are dangerous. I speak seriously, Caroline." I thought it had come to a serious pass, when Ephraim called me Caroline.