Page:Live and Let Live.djvu/213

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THE CONCLUSION.
213

them with self-respect She never lowers herself, but raises them. If some people looked as differently as they act to those above and those below them, they would sometimes appear like the "loathly ladie" in the ballad.

"How very kind of you, dear mother, to offer fifty dollars from your little pittance towards furnishing our house; but, indeed, I have no occasion for it. You remember my declining Mr. Hartell's gift at the time of that horrid affair of Adéle's; you and I both felt, and so did Charles, as if there was something discouraging and degrading to servants in paying their heart-service as well as their body-service. But Mr. Hartell could not take this view of it, so he gave Mr. Hyde one hundred dollars in trust for me, to be paid on my coming of age or at my marriage. I wonder he should have thought that could take place before I was twenty-one; but I believe he suspected, even then, that Charles and I had thoughts of one another. Well, out of the one hundred Mr. Hyde has made two, which, with my savings, is quite enough to furnish our house with comforts. Perhaps you will be surprised to know that I have saved anything more than I have sent to Jemmie. You first, dear mother, taught me to be content with a little, and that the best quality in dress is its adaptation to the wearer. When I came to live with Mrs. Hyde, she gave me an account-book, in which I set down every penny I earned and spent. She purchases her cotton and flannel at wholesale, and gives it to us at the same price; and if she or the family make us presents, it is not of their old clothes, which would not be serviceable for us, but some good