“I suppose we might, if we were,” said Lysken.
“Lysken, it should be a right strange world, where thou hadst the governance!”
“Very like,” was Lysken’s calm rejoinder, as she set the pin a little further in her seam.
“What good is it, prithee, to set thee up against all men’s opinion? (What are now termed ‘views’ were then called ‘opinions.’) Thou shalt but win scorn for thine.”
“Were it only mine, Blanche, it should be to no good. But when it is God’s command wherewith mine opinion runneth,—why then, the good shall be to hear Christ say, ‘Well done, faithful servant.’ The scorn I bare here shall be light weight then.”
“But wherefore not go smoothly through the world?”
“Because it should cost too much.”
“Nay, what now?” remonstrated Blanche.
“I have two lives, Blanche: and I cannot have my best things in both. The one is short and passing; the other is unchangeable, and shall stand for ever. Now then, I would like my treasures for the second of these two lives: and if I miss any good thing in the first, it shall be no great matter.”
“Thou art a right Puritan!” said Blanche disgustedly.