delicate purity and
nattiness: not a crease was where it had no business to be, not a bit
of her linen professed whiteness without fulfilling its profession; the
very pins on her pincushion were stuck in after a pattern from which
she was careful to allow no aberration; and as for her own person, it
gave the same idea of perfect unvarying neatness as the body of a
little bird. It is true that her light-brown hair was cropped behind
like a boy's, and was dressed in front in a number of flat rings, that
lay quite away from her face; but there was no sort of coiffure that
could make Miss Nancy's cheek and neck look otherwise than pretty; and
when at last she stood complete in her silvery twilled silk, her lace
tucker, her coral necklace, and coral ear-drops, the Miss Gunns could
see nothing to criticise except her hands, which bore the traces of
butter-making, cheese-crushing, and even still coarser work. But Miss
Nancy was not ashamed of that, for even while she was dressing she
narrated to her aunt how she and Priscilla had packed their boxes
yesterday, because this morning was baking morning, and since they were
leaving home, it was desirable to make a good supply of meat-pies for
the kitchen; and as she concluded this judicious remark, she turned to
the Miss Gunns that she might not commit the rudeness of not including
them in the conversation. The Miss Gunns smiled stiffly, and thought
what a pity it was that these rich country people, who could afford to
buy such good clothes (really Miss Nancy's lace and silk were very
costly), should be brought up in utter ignorance and vulgarity. She
actually said "mate" for "meat", "'appen" for "perhaps", and "oss" for
"horse", which, to young ladies living in good Lytherly society, who
habitually said 'orse, even in domestic privacy, and only said 'appen
on the right occasions, was necessarily shocking. Miss Nancy, indeed,
had never been to any school higher than Dame Tedman's: her
acquaintance with profane literature hardly went beyond the rhymes she
had worked in her large sampler under the lamb and the shepherdess; and
in order to balance an account, she was obliged to effect her
subtraction by removing visible metallic shillings and sixpences from a
visible metallic total. There is hardly a servant-maid in these days
who is not better informed than Miss Nancy; yet she had the essential
attributes of a lady--high veracity, delicate honour in her dealings,
deference to o