can't pipe up that--nay, if you won't tell my lady, I don't mind telling
you that I have said 'Confound it!' and 'Zounds!' I can't get any
farther. For all that, Mr. Horner won't forget I am a lady, and so I am
not half the use I might be, and if it were not to please my Lady Ludlow,
Mr. Horner and his books might go hang (see how natural that came out!).
And there is an order for a dozen nightcaps for a bride, and I am so
afraid I shan't have time to do them. Worst of all, there's Mr. Gray
taking advantage of my absence to seduce Sally!"

"To seduce Sally! Mr. Gray!"

"Pooh, pooh, child! There's many a kind of seduction. Mr. Gray is
seducing Sally to want to go to church. There has he been twice at my
house, while I have been away in the mornings, talking to Sally about the
state of her soul and that sort of thing. But when I found the meat all
roasted to a cinder, I said, 'Come, Sally, let's have no more praying
when beef is down at the fire. Pray at six o'clock in the morning and
nine at night, and I won't hinder you.' So she sauced me, and said
something about Martha and Mary, implying that, because she had let the
beef get so overdone that I declare I could hardly find a bit for Nancy
Pole's sick grandchild, she had chosen the better part. I was very much
put about, I own, and perhaps you'll be shocked at what I said--indeed, I
don't know if it was right myself--but I told her I had a soul as well as
she, and if it was to be saved by my sitting still and thinking about
salvation and never doing my duty, I thought I had as good a right as she
had to be Mary, and save my soul. So, that afternoon I sat quite still,
and it was really a comfort, for I am often too busy, I know, to pray as
I ought. There is first one person wanting me, and then another, and the
house and the food and the neighbours to see after. So, when tea-time
comes, there enters my maid with her hump on her back, and her soul to be