But, what is most curious of
all, these processes do not appear to put either of the creatures to
the slightest inconvenience."
"I am quite at a loss to make you all out," said Sophia.
"Well, my child," replied her mother, "you should not close up your
ears in the middle of a story."
"Cecilia, or rather Mrs. Lindsey, however," continued Wolston, "was a
pious, painstaking, simple-minded woman, who devoted her whole
attention to her domestic duties. Notwithstanding her fortune, she did
not neglect the humblest affairs of the household, and thought only of
making her husband pleased with his home. When she was told of the
vagaries of Philipson, she prayed in private that he might be led from
his evil ways, and could not help thanking Providence that she was not
the wife of such a dreadful scapegrace."
"I should think so," remarked Mrs. Becker.
"At last, Herbert Philipson astonished even his own companions by a
crowning act of folly. There was then a young woman in Bristol, of
good parentage, but an unmitigated virago; her family were thoroughly
ashamed of her temper and her exploits. They allowed her to have her
own way, simply for fear that, through contradiction, she might plunge
herself into even worse courses than those she now habitually
followed. In short, she was the talk and jest of the whole town.
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