"I do, ma'am. You've said the like to me before, and so has Matty, but I didn't heed; I seemed not to understand. But all the time I was so unhappy about Miss Flo, those thoughts seemed to come back to me. And I will pray, as you tell me, ma'am. Indeed, I do love Him even now, though not as I ought; for He has been very merciful to me. Oh, ma'am!—when I think that she might have been killed! How could I have borne it, when it was my doing?"
"Indeed, Hetty, we all have much to be thankful for."
Well, if Hetty was not entirely cured of her heedlessness, she was certainly cured of treating it as a mere misfortune, for which she was to be pitied. And the best proof of her improvement was that in no long time Mr. Eyre quite laid aside his distrust of her, and ceased to be uneasy if she was left in charge of Flo.
Flo was very ill for a long time, and often they thought that a few weeks more would see the close of her suffering and her life. But she at last began to improve; and, to the great joy of all who loved her, she continued to get steadily better, until at last she could walk about nearly as well as Lina. She grew a great deal, too, and health brought back her pretty pink colour, and the unchildlike gravity vanished from her face.
Indeed, if the truth must be told, Miss Flora was rather a troublesome lassie for a time; for it seemed as if all the fun and frolic she had missed had to be got through somehow. But she sobered down again, and is a very good girl, and a great comfort to her parents. Lina is married, and Flo is the home daughter, helping her mother, and caring for the younger children.
As to Hetty, after ten years of faithful service, she left her dear mistress, and still dearer Miss Flo, to become the wife of Fred Smith, who is now postmaster in the very office where she was once too late for the London post, thanks to the attractions of Punch and Judy. And as Fred is a good, steady, God-fearing man, we may hope that she will be as happy as she deserves to be, I think; even though she once earned the name of Heedless Hetty.
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.