“What, Heliet?” asked its bearer, with a smile. “It is taken from the name of the holy prophet Elye, (Elijah) of old time.”
“Is it? But I mean the other.”
“Ah, I love it not,” said Heliet.
“No, it is very queer,” replied Clarice, with an apologetic blush, “very odd—Underdone!”
“Oh, but that is not my name,” answered Heliet, quickly, with a little laugh; “but it is quite as bad. It is Pride.”
Clarice fancied she had heard the name before, but she could not remember where.
“But why is it bad?” said she. “Then I reckon Mistress Underdone hath been twice wed?”
“She hath,” said Heliet, answering the last question first, as people often do, “and my father was her first husband. Why is pride evil? Surely thou knowest that.”
“Oh, I know it is one of the seven deadly sins, of course,” responded Clarice, quickly; “still it is very necessary and noble.”
Heliet’s smile expressed a mixture of feelings. Clarice was not the first person who has held one axiom theoretically, but has practically behaved according to another.