d
like that. And learning!--why, she has to learn Latin, and surgery, and
heraldry, and all sorts of needlework--not embroidery only; and cooking,
and music, and I do not know what else. How would you like it,
Antigone?"

"Well, at any rate, she has a change!" said Antigone, with some
acerbity.

"Not quite the same thing as no work at all, for which I thought you
were longing. And no liberty, remember."

"But her gowns, Sarah, her gowns!--and her hoods, and cloaks, and
everything else! Did you see her last Saint Michael? I'd have given a
bit of liberty for that orange samite and those lovely blue slippers!"

Sarah laughed and gave a little shake of her head.

"I know who is fond of Hunt the Slipper," said she. "A pretty figure an
orange samite gown would cut after an evening of it! I think, too, I
would rather be free to go about on my feet than even to wear lovely
blue slippers. Nay, Antigone, you may depend upon it, there are less
pleasant things in Lady Margaret's life than orange gowns and blue
slippers. We can have a say about our weddings, remember: but she will
be handed over to somebody she never saw, as like as not. I'd rather be
as I am. Mother says folks' lots are more even than they like to think.
Poor folks fancy that rich ones have nothing to trouble them worth
mention; and a sick man thinks, if he were only well, he would not mind
being poor; and a man in prison says that if he could but be free, he
could bear both illness and poverty. The truth is, everybody thinks his
own trouble the worst; and yet, if we had our neighbours' instead, nine
times out of ten we should be glad to get back to our own. We know the
worst of them, and often we don't of the others. So that is why I say,
I'd rather be as I am."

"But people look down on you!" said Antigone.

"Well, let them. _That_ won't hurt me," answered Sarah.

"Sarah, I do believe you've not a bit of spirit!"

"I'd rather keep my spirit for what it is good for--to help me over hard
places and along weary bits of road. All women have those at times.
Mother says--"

"Where's the good of quoting old women? They have outlived their
youth."

"Well, at any rate they lived through it, and some of them picked up a
bit of wisdom by the way."

"You may keep your musty wisdom to yourself! I want none of it!" said
Antigone, scornfully.

"I want all I can get," quietly responded Sarah. "Mother says (if you
don't care for it, Emma may)