She was
cheerful and patient with Emily, and devoid of petulance when annoyed
by the spirits of the younger ones rising higher than accorded with
the sad and anxious hearts of their elders. Her most painful feeling
was, that it was possible that she might be punished through her
cousin, as she had already been through Agnes; that her follies might
have brought this distress upon every one, and that this was the
price at which the child's baptism was to be bought. Yet Lily would
not have changed her present thoughts for any of her varying frames
of mind since that fatal Whitsuntide. Better feelings were springing
up within her than she had then known; the church service and Sunday
were infinitely more to her, and she was beginning to obtain peace of
mind independent of external things.
She could not help rejoicing to see how many evidences of affection
to the Rector were called forth by this illness; presents of fruit
poured in from all quarters, from Lord Rotherwood's choice hothouse
grapes, to poor little Kezia Grey's wood-strawberries; inquiries were
continual, and the stillness of the village was wonderful. There was
no cricket on the hill, no talking in the street, no hallooing in the
hay-field, and no burst of noise when the children were let out of
school.
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