human
And I'm as fain as I'd be of forty shillings, said old Rebecca to Edith.
gpt
Eh, but the mistress just opens out when you're here like a flower in the sunlight!
human
Now, don't you go to want Faith to tarry behind, observed Temperance, addressing the same person:
gpt
How long shall she be mistress, Temperance?
human
Why, till my Lady Lettice comes,
gpt
For `Lady Lettice,' read `Mrs Agnes Marshall,'
human
Aunt Joyce! cried Edith.
gpt
You never mean--
human
Don't I? But I do, Mistress Bat's-Eyes.
gpt
Well, I never so much as--
human
Never so much as saw a black cow a yard off, didst thou? See if it come not true. Now, my maids, go not and meddle your fingers in the pie, without you wish it not to come true. Methinks Aubrey hath scarce yet read his own heart, and Agnes is innocent as driven snow of all imagination thereof: nevertheless, mark my words, that Agnes Marshall shall be the next lady of Selwick Hall. And I wouldn't spoil the pie, were I you; it shall eat tasty enough if you'll but leave it to bake in the oven. It were a deal better so than for the lad to fetch home some fine town madam that should trouble herself with his mother and grandmother but as the cuckoo with the young hedge-sparrows in his foster-mother's nest. She's a downright good maid, Agnes, and she is bounden to your mother and yon, and so is her father: and though, if Selwick were to turn you forth, your home is at Minster Lovel, as my child here knows, --and Aunt Joyce laid her hand lovingly on that of Edith--
gpt
Eh, I'll meddle with nought so good, responded Temperance, heartily.
human
If the lad come to no worse than that, he shall fare uncommon well, and better than he deserveth. As for the maid, I'm not quite so sure: but I'll hope for the best.
gpt
The best thing you can do, my dear. `We are saved by hope'--not as a man is saved by the rope that pulleth him forth of the sea, but rather as he is saved by the light that enableth him to see and grasp it. He may find the rope in the dark; yet shall he do it more quicklier and with much better comfort in the light. `Hope thou in God,' `Have faith in God,' `Fear not,'--all those precepts be brethren; and one or other of them cometh very oft in Scripture. For a man cannot hope without some faith, and he shall find it hard to hope along with fear. Faith, hope, love--these do abide for ever.