"What did she say?" asked Emily, much interested.
"She did not say much, only kissed me and called me her dear child, but I heard her tell father afterwards that she felt as though a thousand pounds was lifted off her mind when I called her mother. So, you see, I had my reward that time. If one has a difficult thing before one, it is so much easier to do it the very minute one has a chance, than it is if one puts it off, and then while you are delaying very likely something happens which makes it almost impossible for you to do it at all."
Emily thought of the money, and gave an unqualified assent. "But how have you got on since?" she asked.
"Oh, nicely!" replied Abby. "She takes such good care of the children, and makes father so happy, that I could not help liking her, though we do not agree about some things exactly. But then I know, of course, it is my place to give way, and as it takes two to make a dispute, we never have any. She is really very kind to me, too, so that it is no great matter if she is a little fussy sometimes. But if I had begun by quarreling, or even by crying and fretting, I dare say I should have ended by disliking her as much as Delia does Mrs. Mason."
"You don't do Delia justice, Abby. It is harder for her than it would be for many people, she has such strong feelings."
"Fiddle-de-dee!" said Abby, not very elegantly. "What is the use of strong feelings, or deep feelings, if they don't make people act rightly? If feeling was all, I could be as good a Christian as any body, but it is when it comes to action that I find the trouble. I am no believer in that sort of Christianity. However, as far as Delia is concerned, I don't mean to judge her. She may be quite different from what I have thought her—indeed, I think she must be, or you and she would not agree so well."
Emily sighed and blushed, as she remembered how little opportunity she had given Delia of commenting upon her religion, either in principle or in practice. She was somewhat uplifted in her own esteem, however, by what had passed that evening, forgetting how near she had come to yielding, and that she had been saved from it more by Abby's frankness than by any courage of her own; and she resolved that on the very first evening of Delia's return, she would show her that she did not fear her ridicule, when the cause of religion was concerned.
She spent several days very pleasantly at Mrs. Carson's, becoming more and more attached to Abby, as she saw how much she did to render home happy. With a great many excellent and lovable qualities, and a sincere desire to do her duty, Mrs. Carson was, as Abby said, a little fussy, and she sometimes interfered unnecessarily in Abby's plans and projects, in a way which would have been very vexatious to most girls of her age, but Abby took every thing pleasantly, contriving to avoid collisions, and giving up when it was irresistible with a perfect good grace.
"She is better than I am," thought Emily upon one of these occasions, "though she does not make any pretensions to piety, but I am resolved that I will turn over a new leaf. Delia shall see that I am determined to do right in the future, whatever I may have done in the past. I have been very wicked, I know, but I hope I have repented, and, as to making restitution, that is just impossible, and no one is called upon to do what is impossible."
So did Emily reason, and so did she resolve. What her reasonings and resolutions amounted to, we shall perhaps see in future.