518 THE MANSE AND ITS INMATES. 



were her infirmities known, that her capiihility might be questionetl, 

 and herself thrust out upon a regardless, if not an unpitying, world. 



She died fully sensible of her situation, and prepared for the awful 

 change of which it was the forerunner ; nor, though she received 

 death as a release, did it appear that she considered her burden as 

 having been ])eculiarly heavy. It rather seemed as if the nature of 

 her affliction had supplied its antidote ; and though no relation's 

 voice nor hand cheered or tended her dying bed, yet to breathe her 

 last sigh in the room she had so long inhabited, to see around her 

 only the faces of familiar friends when she had so long dreaded those 

 of mercenary, and perhaps hard-hearted, strangers, appeared as 

 ample compensation for all she had suffered. 



Mis3 Crofts had no debts, and the amount of salary which was due 

 to her was sufficient to defray the moderate expenses of her humble 

 funeral, and the medicines and attendance of a neighbouring 

 apothecary. She settled every thing herself; and a few days before 

 her death presented to each individual in the house some little pre- 

 sent of her own workmanship, to be retained as a memorial of iier — 

 little legacies which, from her indefatigable industry and the nature 

 of her accomplishments, she possessed fully the means of bestowing. 



Wonderful was the change of sentiment produced in these few 

 weeks. The petulance of youth, pampered by all the indulgences 

 of wealth and high station, no longer exhaled itself at the expense of 

 " cross old Miss Crofts." To tread with noiseless footsteps to her 

 chamber-door and enquire how she found herself, — to lay out their 

 pocket-money in the purchase of foreign grapes, or any other luxury 

 allowed by the doctor, — to sit by her bed-side in turns, softening their 

 young voices to the gentle tones suitable to the ear of sickness, — 

 to smooth her pillow and support her head, — were offices eagerly 

 sought after and affectionately performed. 



Mrs. Somerive permitted and encouraged the humane attentions 

 and feelings of her young pupils. 



" The heart, with all its ' tender charities,' " said she " needs edu- 

 cation as well as the mind and its powers. The children of pros- 

 perity have too few opportunities of seeing life as it really is to the 

 great bulk of their fellow-mortals, still less of death, which they must 

 share with the meanest, and which is the only event of which even 

 the highest and most powerful can be certain." 



The servants discovered that Miss Crofts had never given unneces- 

 sary trouble ; and regarded with gratitude, not wholly unmingled 

 with self-reproach, th'i articles of clothing she had distributed among 

 them. Nor was any offended, though the selection was made with a 

 close reference to the station in life of the future wearer. The de- 

 cisions of sound judgment and visible integrity offend only the weak 

 or the wicked. '' You will remember me kindly, I trust,'' said the 

 dying woman, " when you wear these thhigs which I have worn." 



To Ruth, with these trifling but endearing exceptions, she gave 

 all that she possessed. " To many," she said, " they would be little 

 or nothing; but to you, dear Ruth, they will be useful, and you will 

 value them the more as being the death-bed tokens of tlie last earthly 

 feeling, and almost the only pleasurable feeling, of a sincerely at- 



