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'I mean, on the contrary, to be busy.'
'Jane, I excuse you for the present: two months' grace I allow
you for the full enjoyment of your new position, and for pleasing
yourself with this late-found charm of relationship; but then, I
hope you will begin to look beyond Moor House and Morton, and sisterly
society, and the selfish calm and sensual comfort of civilised
affluence. I hope your energies will then once more trouble you with
their strength.'
I looked at him with surprise. 'St. John,' I said, 'I think you are
almost wicked to talk so. I am disposed to be as content as a queen,
and you try to stir me up to restlessness! To what end?'
'To the end of turning to profit the talents which God has
committed to your keeping; and of which He will surely one day
demand a strict account. Jane, I shall watch you closely and
anxiously- I warn you of that. And try to restrain the
disproportionate fervour with which you throw yourself into
commonplace home pleasures. Don't cling so tenaciously to ties of
the flesh; save your constancy and ardour for an adequate cause;
forbear to waste them on trite transient objects. Do you hear, Jane?'
'Yes; just as if you were speaking Greek. I feel I have adequate
cause to be happy, and I will be happy. Good-bye!'
Happy at Moor House I was, and hard I worked; and so did Hannah:
she was charmed to see how jovial I could be amidst the bustle of a
house turned topsy-turvy- how I could brush, and dust, and clean,
and cook. And really, after a day or two of confusion worse
confounded, it was delightful by degrees to invoke order from the
to purchase some new furniture: my cousins having given me carte
blanche to effect what alterations I pleased, and a sum having been
set aside for that purpose. The ordinary sitting-room and bedrooms I
left much as they were: for I knew Diana and Mary would derive more
pleasure from seeing again the old homely tables, and chairs, and
beds, than from the spectacle of the smartest innovations. Still
some novelty was necessary, to give to their return the piquancy
with which I wished it to be invested. Dark handsome new carpets and
curtains, an arrangement of some carefully selected antique
ornaments in porcelain and bronze, new coverings, and mirrors, and
dressing-cases, for the toilet-tables, answered the end: they looked
fresh without being glaring. A spare parlour and bedroom I refurnished
entirely, with old mahogany and crimson upholstery: I laid canvas on
the passage, and carpets on the stairs. When all was finished, I
thought Moor House as complete a model of bright modest snugness
within, as it was, at this season, a specimen of wintry waste and
desert dreariness without.
The eventful Thursday at length came. They were expected about
dark, and ere dusk fires were lit upstairs and below; the kitchen
was in perfect trim; Hannah and I were dressed, and all was in
readiness.