“Madame Ascot is our cousin quite as much as he.”
“Madame Ascot, indeed! Don’t be silly, Tessie;” and she shrugged her shoulders in Mr St. Cyr’s fashion. “I wish I had gone to church with Mr St. Cyr. I mean I wish I had offered to go. He would have been pleased.”
“But papa would not have been pleased, Fred.”
“He would not have cared about my going to church. He would not have been pleased that I should go to give pleasure to Mr St. Cyr. He does not like him; I wonder why.”
“Oh! you know very well. It is because of grandpapa’s will.”
“Mama likes him. She says he is a good and just man. He is very religious.”
“So is Madame Ascot,” said Tessie. “I don’t admire religious people.”
“But then there are so many ways of being religious. Miss Baines’ religion made her strong and patient to bear pain. And she was good and kind always.”
“Miss Pardie is very religious—the cross thing,” said Theresa, “and so is Fanny Green. But she listens to the girl’s conversation while she says her prayers. And Mattie Holt tells tales, and is very disagreeable. I don’t admire religious people.”
“But then their religion cannot be of the right kind. There must be some good in the right religion, if we only could be sure what the right is.”