310 THE MANSE AND ITS INMATES. 



" Would it not have been better to have thought a little at first, and 

 not have got into it?" 



"A great deal, I dare say; but there 1 was, and there I am. 

 Poor me ! I am very sorry for myself! After all, mamma, you un- 

 derstood what I meant well enough; and how could I have expressed 

 myself otherwise in as few woi-ds?" 



" Nay, my dear, the wishes were yours ; put them in your own 

 language. I do not see the necessity for confining yourself to a 

 certain number of words." 



" Let me think,'' said Lily deliberately. " I might have said, I am 

 very sorry papa was obliged to go to London ; but, since he has gone, 

 I can't help longing for the time of his return ; for we are none of 

 us so happy or merry in his absence. Indeed, I think it would have 

 been much better if he had never gone. No ; that won't do. It's as 

 long and as prosy as if Mrs. Martha Dreetale had composed it; and 

 what a talent she has that way, honest woman ! Her meaning takes 

 as long to come to light as an aloe to blossom. I must try again. I 

 am sorry papa's away. I wish very much that he was at home again, 

 to make us all happy- I think that must do, mamma; have you any 

 objection ?'' 



" None, my dear." 



" Well I that's over, and I am heartily glad of it," said Lily, who 

 was always as eager to get out of a scrape, as she called it, as she 

 ■was heedless in running into one. "And now, mamma, I have a great 

 deal to ask you. Do you think that we shall like our London 

 cousins'?" 



" I hope so, Lily ; they are the only near relations you have in the 

 world, after your parents, brothers, and sisters. I hope, too, that you 

 will all be very kind to them ; they will need it, poor things, for the 

 change will be very great to them." 



"Is living in London so very different, mamma, from living in Scot- 

 land ?'' 



" Your cousins, Lily, have been accustomed to a coach, to fine 

 clothes, to a fine house and a great many servants, to seeing a 

 great deal of company and going to public places. They will have 

 none of these things here, and they have no other place to go to, for 

 their own mamma is dead, and their papa gone a great way off" — 

 erhaps never to return.'' 



" Poor cousins ! I am afraid then, mamma, they will neither like 

 living at the Manse, nor love us." 



" We must try, \jily, to make them do both, and we must do so 

 by delicate kindness — that is, we mustinot content ourselves with 

 being really and substantially kind, but we must endeavour to be so 

 in the way that they will like best; and not think that such and such 

 little things are trifles not worth regarding, but take pains to do them 

 if they are likely to please, and pass over, without notice, any little 

 peevishness or unreasonable expectations, till, by degrees, they are 

 accustomed to us and to the place.'' 



"Dear me! that will be very difficult, and take a great deal of 

 thinking, and patience, and good-nature. And, somehow, I never 

 think at all, at least not often till afterwards, when it is too late. 



