"I think I do, ma'am. Oh, I must try very hard."
"Ah! Hetty, trying hard won't do, not by itself. I will talk to you about this some day soon. But now, here we are at home," Mrs. Eyre said, as she knocked at the door.
Mrs. Goodenough opened it; her face was really worth seeing when she recognised Hetty.
"You see, Mrs. Goodenough, I've brought Hetty Hardy back, and you will be pleased, I hope, to hear that it is partly your doing. She wrote to me after hearing from you that Miss Flo was still fretting after the cat. Stay here for a moment, Hetty; I will just say a word to the child and then call you."
But it was Flo's weak little voice that called—
"Hetty! Oh Hetty! My own good Hetty! Come to me quick!"
It was not for a few days that Mrs. Eyre found time for the talk with Hetty which she had promised her. But one morning, Flo being asleep, and the others out, Mrs. Eyre said: "Hetty, you know you and I were to have a serious talk; for I did not say what I wished to say to you that evening."
"I remember, ma'am. You were saying that trying hard won't do, by itself. Ma'am, if you'll believe me, Matty told me that when I was coming here, that first time, and I never minded. I didn't really understand. But I do now. I see plain enough that it is not in my own strength that I can cure my heedlessness. And I know now that it is a sin, and not just a misfortune, as I used to call it. But indeed, ma'am, I do not think I could ever forget this lesson."
"Perhaps not. But, Hetty, try to think of what I am going to say to you. You are an affectionate girl, and so, to please those you love, you would do nearly anything. When you ran off to search for Zelica, I know well it was because the loss of the little cat would have grieved Miss Flo so much. But you see what came of it, and you know now that you did wrong. Now, had you asked yourself, not what would please Miss Flo, but what it was your duty to do—then you would have stayed at your post, and the child would have been safe."
"So it always is, Hetty. The moment our motive is less than the highest; the moment we act to please this person or that, without remembering that we have to please God, that moment we go wrong. I want you to pray, as Matty said to you; but, dear Hetty, pray that God will give you such a love for Him, your Father, who sent His Son to save you from your sins, that to please him may become the first thought of your heart. Will you do this, Hetty? Do you understand me?"