"Well, my dear," answered Lady Ingram, slowly, as if considering Celia's speech, "I can see very little difference between us, except that you would have all men hermits and friars instead of some. We both believe in Jesus Christ, of course; and no doubt there is a certain sense in which the religious feel love to God, and this love inclines them to the cloister. I do not therefore see wherein we differ except on a few unimportant points."
Celia saw an immense distance between them, on points neither few nor unimportant; but the courage which had risen to a high tide was ebbing away, and her heart failed her.
"Well, this will do for to-day, my fair divine," said Lady Ingram, with a smile. "Now bring me my silk-winders, and hold that skein of red silk while I wind it—or stay, is that a matter of conscience, my little votaress?"
"On the Lord's Day, Madam, it is, if you please."
"Very well, let the silk alone; I can wind it to-morrow just as well. Would it be breaking the Sabbath for you to tell Thérèse that I wish to speak with her? Pray don't if you feel at all uncomfortable."
Celia gave the message to Thérèse, and then locked herself into her own room, and relieved her feelings by another fit of crying.
[[1a]] [[1b]]A Devonshire phrase, as well as an American one, signifying, in the former case, "she belonged to, or lived at," the place.
[[2]] Foxe's "Acts and Monuments," ed. Townsend, 1846, vol. v., p. 550.
[[3]] Abigail Hill was a cousin and dependent of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, and supplanted her in the Queen's favor. She was a violent Tory. She married Samuel Masham, one of the Queen's pages, created Baron Masham, December 13, 1711.
[[4]] Elizabeth Percy, only child of Josceline Earl of Northumberland, and Elizabeth Wriothesley: born 1665-6; married (1) 1679, Henry Cavendish, Lord Ogle, (2) 1681, Thomas Thynne Esq., (3) 1682, Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset; she died December 1722, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. The Duchess of Somerset succeeded the Duchess of Marlborough in the office of Mistress of the Robes to Queen Anne.