human
My dear creature! she said with one of her soft laughs,
gpt
I beg your pardon! said Lettice stiffly--more so, indeed, than she knew or meant.
human
If that be what you call `life,' I am afraid I know little about it.
gpt
And wish for no more! said Gertrude, laughing.
human
Well, if I offended you, I ought to beg pardon. I did not intend it, I am sure. But, my dear, what a pity you do not crisp your hair, or curl it! That old-fashioned roll back is as ancient as my grandmother. And a partlet, I declare! They really ought to let you be a _little_ more properly dressed. You never see girls with turned-back hair now.
gpt
Now, if I had you to dress, said Gertrude complacently,
human
I should just put you in a decent, neat corset, with a white satin gown, puffed with crimson velvet, a velvet hood lined with white satin, a girdle of gold and pearls, crimson stockings, white satin slippers, a lace rebato, and a pearl necklace. Oh, how charming you would look! You would not know yourself. Then I should put a gold bodkin in your hair, and a head-drop of pearls set round a diamond, and bracelets instead of these lawn cuffs, and a fan; and wash your face in distilled waters, and odoriferous oils for your hands.
gpt
But I should not like my hands oily!
human
Oh yes, you would, when you were accustomed to it. And then just the least touch on your forehead and cheeks, and--O Lettice, my dear, you would have half London at your feet!
gpt
The `least touch' of what?
human
Oh, just to show the blue veins, you know.
gpt
Oh, just a touch of blue,
human
You never, surely, mean--_paint_?
gpt
My dear little Puritan, be not so shocked! I do, really, mean paint; but not all over your face--nothing of the sort: only a touch here and there.
human
I'll take care it does not touch me, said Lettice decidedly.
gpt
I don't want to get accustomed to such abominable things. And as to having half London at my feet, there isn't room for it, and I am sure I should not like it if there were.
human
O Lettice, Lettice! cried Gertrude amidst her laughter.
gpt
I never saw such a maid. Why, you are old before you are young.
human
I have heard say, answered Lettice, laughing herself,
gpt
Oh, don't talk of being old--'tis horrid to think on. But, my dear, you should really have a little fine breeding, and not be bred up a musty, humdrum Puritan. I do hate those she-precise hypocrites, that go about in close stomachers and ruffles of Geneva print, and cannot so much as cudgel their maids without a Scripture to back them. Nobody likes them, you know. Don't grow into one of them. You'll never be married if you do.
human
Well, why don't you speak?
gpt
Because I don't know what to say. I can't tell what you expect me to say: and you give such queer reasons for not doing things.
human
Do I so? said Gertrude, looking amused.
gpt
Why, what queer reasons have I given?
human
That nobody will like me, and I shall never be married!
gpt
Well! aren't they very good reasons?
human
They don't seem to me to be reasons at all. I may never be married, whether I do it or not; and that will be as God sees best for me, so why trouble myself about it? And as to people not liking me because I am a Puritan, don't you remember the Lord's words, `If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you'?
gpt
Oh, you sucked in the Bible with your mother's milk, I suppose, said Gertrude pettishly,
human
Thank you, I don't want to be a spoil-sport, and I do not think the Bible is, unless the sports are bad ones, and they might as well be spoiled, might they not?
gpt
There's Mr Stone! cried Gertrude inconsequently, and in a relieved tone, for Lettice was leading in a direction whither she had no wish to follow.
human
Look! isn't he a fine young man? What a shame to have christened so comely a man by so ugly a name as Jeremy!
gpt
Do you think so? It is a beautiful name; it means `him whom God hath appointed,'--Aunt Edith says so.
human
Think you I care what it _means_! was the answer, in a rather vexed tone, though it was accompanied by a laugh.
gpt
I do not understand! said Lettice a little blankly.
human
You seem to think little of those things whereof I have been taught to think much; and to think much of those things whereof I have been led to think little. It puzzles me. Excuse me.
gpt
My dear little innocence! said she.
human
I am sorry to let the cold, garish daylight in upon your pretty little stained-glass creed: it is never pleasant to have scales taken from your eyes. But really, you look on things in such false colours, that needs must. Why, my child, if you were to go out into the world, you would find all those fancies laughed to scorn. 'Tis only Puritans love sermons and Bibles and such things. No doubt they are all right, and good, and all that; quite proper for Sunday, and sick-beds, and so on. I am not an infidel, of course. But then--well?
gpt
Would your mother think you loved her, Gertrude, if you told her you never wanted to see her except on Sundays and when you were sick? And if God hears all we say, is it not as good as telling Him that? You puzzle me more and more. I have been taught that the world is the enemy of God, and refuses to guide its ways by His Word: but you speak as if it were something good, that we ought to look up to, and hearken what it bids us. It cannot be both. And what God says about it _must_ be true.
human
Lettice, whatever one says, you always come back to your Puritan stuff. I wish you would be natural, like other maids. See, I am about to turn you over to Dorothy. Let us see if she can make something of you--I cannot.--Here, Doll! come and sit here, and talk with Lettice. I want to go and speak to Grissel yonder.
gpt
I thought Mr Louvaine was to be here to-day,
human
So did I likewise. I cannot tell why he comes not.
gpt
Have you seen him lately?
human
No, not in some time. I suppose he is busy.
gpt
What think you he doth all the day long?