Mrs. Hardy was pleased, though it was against her principles to show it. She laughed, and said, "Oh, Hetty was always good at a pinch. I wonder now what outrageous thing she'll do to make up for lost time."
"Come, now, you are too hard upon her," said Mr. Eyre.
"I don't mean to be, sir. I warned the mistress here not to be praising her. Her head don't stand it, ma'am, and so you'll find. But I'm very glad she was serviceable to you, though it's no more than her duty, and so we'll say no more about it."
But she told Matty that she really believed that Hetty was going to behave like other people, she was so improved.
Yet I must confess that I do not think that Hetty was really improved. She was a good girl, very truthful and honest, very kind-hearted and affectionate, anxious to do right when she gave herself the trouble to think about it. The misfortune was, that she often did not think, nor had she yet learned that it was wrong to be so heedless. It gave her no trouble, but came quite natural to her, to be very sorry for others when in sorrow or anxiety, and to help them with all her heart. She was not heedless then, because her feelings were touched, and her mind was full of plans to be of use. When she had done a careless thing she was very sorry, quite ready to own to it, and to cry over it; but all this, only if her heedlessness had caused mischief and annoyance. She did twenty careless things for which she never was sorry, because no great harm came of them. In fact, she acted on impulse, not on principle; and being fortunately a good girl, her impulses were mostly good; but she had yet to learn self-control.
She had yet to learn that a Christian must bring conscience to bear upon every action of life, small as well as great. And as to seriously repenting of her fault, and praying to be cured of it, she was so far from this, that she hardly knew it for a fault at all, but called it a misfortune, and had quite forgotten Matty's little sermon to her on the day she left home.
She loved her mistress and Miss Flora very sincerely, and was capable of doing much to please either them or her master; but though it is well to love our fellow creatures, and all love is the gift of God, yet only the love of God, filling our hearts with an ardent desire to please Him, can so fill these hearts of ours as to drive out carelessness, thoughtlessness, or any other sin. Still, Hetty was one of God's dear children, thoughtless as she still was; and if she would not learn the mild lessons He was giving her now, we may be sure that some lesson of a more severe nature would be sent to her. For He loves His children, and will have them learn to think more of pleasing Him than of anything else.
Mrs. Eyre, however, thought, naturally enough, that Hetty had left off her heedless ways, and was therefore a little disappointed when, on coming home from an expedition to Messrs. Miller & Cartwright's, whither her husband had sent her, she perceived a very unpleasant smell in the hall.
"Oh, Hetty, what a horrid smell! What is it?"
"Indeed, ma'am, it is the small tin kettle. Mrs. Goodenough had not filled it, and I thought she had, and put it on, wanting some hot water. But it was empty, and it got all red, and there is a great hole in it. I am very sorry, ma'am."