“But, Aunt, that is so ignoble a way of acting!” cried Amelia, as though she wanted to show that she was one of the other sort. “Love and devotion to a holy or chivalrous cause should be free from all petty personal considerations.”
“You can get yours free, my dear, if you like—and find you can manage it,” said my Aunt Kezia. “I couldn’t. As to ignoble, that hangs much on the person. When Queen Margaret of Scotland was drowning in yonder border river, and the good knight rode into the water and held forth his hand to her, and said, ‘Grip fast!’ was that a petty, ignoble consideration? It was a purely personal matter.”
“Oh, of course, if you—” said Amelia, and did not go on.
“Things look very different, sometimes, according to the side on which you see them,” saith my Aunt Kezia.
I could not help thinking that people did so.
Note 1. Emily was used during the last century as a diminutive for Amelia. There is really no etymological connection between the two names.
Note 2. In and about London, the name of jumbles is given to a common kind of gingerbread, to be obtained at the small sweet-shops: but these are not the old English jumball of the text.
Note 3. There was no Queen at this time. Augusta of Saxe Gotha was Princess of Wales, and the King had three grown-up unmarried daughters.
Note 4. This provincialism is correct for Lancashire, and as far as I know for Cumberland.