It will be gathered from this, that the maiden was considerably in advance of the uncivilised age in which she lived, for the ancient inhabitants of Albion were not addicted to the study of theology, either natural or speculative.
“If I but knew of such an All-seeing One,” she murmured, “I would ask Him to help me.”
Raising her eyes as she spoke, she observed the goods piled round the walls, and the light of the lamp—which had been left with her—glittered on the trinkets opposite. This was too much for her. It must be remembered that, besides living in a barbarous age, she was an untutored maiden, and possessed of a large share of that love for “pretty things,” which is—rightly or wrongly—believed to be a peculiar characteristic of the fair sex. Theology, speculative and otherwise, vanished, she leaped up and, forgetting her host’s warning, began to inspect the goods.
At first conscience—for she had an active little one—remonstrated.
“But,” she replied, silently, with a very natural tendency to self-justification, “although Beniah told me not to touch things, I did not promise not to do so?”
“True, but your silence was equivalent to a promise,” said something within her.
“No, it wasn’t,” she replied aloud.
“Yes, it was,” retorted the something within her in a tone of exasperating contradiction.
This was much too subtle a discussion to be continued. She brushed it aside with a laugh, and proceeded to turn over the things with eager admiration on her expressive face. Catching up a bright blue-and-scarlet shawl, large enough to cover her person, she threw it over her and made great, and not quite successful, efforts to see her own back. Suddenly she became motionless, and fixed her lustrous brown eyes on the roof with almost petrified attention.
A thought had struck her! And she resolved to strike it back in the sense of pursuing it to a conclusion.