“‘I have none fit. Slippers will not do.’
“So I began a search, and presently, the children, the servants and, at last, Uncle Bell himself, were called up to assist.
“We looked in every imaginable place where the shoe might have been left or lost, but could not find it, and at last left Auntie, sitting forlorn and puzzled in the middle of her room, while we set out, vexed and tired, for the funeral. Poor Uncle wore a grave, stern expression of countenance all day, and we were so awed by his silence and gloom, that we dared not talk to each other, and so we were very glad when the day was over and we could say good night.
Stories of a Governess.
“Some weeks after, the shoe came to light. It was discovered in a bandbox, with Auntie’s best winter hat. How it came there will remain among the mysteries, I suppose; but that lost shoe made me determined to have a place for everything and keep everything in its place.
“I think I shall never forget those long summer days—the fishing on the rocks, while the trees, leaning over the banks, left green, quiet shadows in the water—the wandering hour after hour among the beautiful flowers and ferns, or the rowing in Willie’s boat while he told us stories or sang to us. But though it was all so charming then, there is not much to tell you about it now.
“My father had taught me to speak the truth. I scorned an approach to a lie, and many times I expressed my contempt for my cousins’ dishonorable proceedings in no very measured terms. Cora was timid and careless: it did not occur to her that many little words were wrong, that the intention to deceive made the lie, not the false statement itself—and much trouble I made for myself and her by my anger at her disregard of truth.
“I became so suspicious of her that, by-and-by, I doubted almost every word she uttered. Childlike, I did not consider that she had never had any training, that she had never had the lectures upon honor and frankness that I had received—indeed, she scarcely knew the meaning of the words—though she was good at heart.
“Morning after morning I used to say to her,