She was not certain that the
colonel had not some suspicion of the true state of the case, and
would not take notice, unwilling to ruin the son of his friend, and
at the same time reluctant to fail in his duty to his employers.
He soon departed; Mistress Lucy's farewell to Sylvester being thus:
"Good-bye, Mr. Roundhead, rebel, crop-eared traitor." At which
Sylvester and his father turned and laughed, and their two soldiers
looked very much astonished.
Lady Woodley called Lucy at once, and spoke to her seriously on her
forwardness and impertinence. "I could tell you, Lucy, that it is
not like a young lady, but I must tell you more, it is not like a
young Christian maiden. Do you remember the text that I gave you to
learn a little while ago--the ornament fit for a woman?"
Lucy hung her head, and with tears filling her eyes, as her mother
prompted her continually, repeated the text in a low mumbling voice,
half crying: "Whose adorning, let it not be the putting on of gold,
or the plaiting of hair, or the putting on of apparel, but let it be
the hidden man of the heart, even the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit, which is in the sight of GOD of great price."
"And does my little Lucy think she showed that ornament when she
pushed herself forward to talk idle nonsense, and make herself be
looked at and taken notice of?"
Lucy put her finger in her mouth; she did not like to be scolded, as
she called it, gentle as her mother was, and she would not open her
mind to take in the kind reproof.
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