"No; but when you told her she might have a silk one hereafter. Don't
you see, instead of uprooting you were fostering pride?--instead of
directing her ambition to a noble object, and thereby elevating her
mind, you were lowering it by drawing it down to an inferior one?"

"I did not see it," observed Mrs. Myles, simply; "but you know, sir,
there's no more harm in a silk than a cotton."

"I must go now, my good lady," said the minister; "only observing
that there _is_ no more harm in one than in the other, except when the
desire to possess anything beyond our means leads to discontent, if
not to more actively dangerous faults. I must come and lecture the
little maids myself."

"And welcome, sir, and thank you kindly besides; poor little dears,
they have no one to look after them but me. I daresay I am wrong
sometimes, but I do my best--I do my best."

The curate thought she did according to her knowledge, but he lamented
that two such exquisitely beautiful children, possessed of such
natural gifts, should be left to the management of a vain old
woman--most vain--though kindly and good-hearted--giving kindness with
pleasure, and receiving it with gratitude--yet totally unfit to bring
up a _pair of beauties_, who, of all the female sex, require the most
discretion in the management.

"I wonder," thought the Reverend Mr. Stokes--"I wonder when our
legislature will contrive to establish a school for mothers. If girls
are sent to school, the chances are that the contamination over
which the teacher can have no control--the contamination of evil