es--every day. You say it's a sacred book,
don't you, Aunt Victoria? Harriet says it's smutty."

"Says _what_?" Aunt Victoria exclaimed, sitting bolt upright in her
horror. "What does she mean by such an expression?"

"Oh, she just means stories like Joseph and Potiphar's wife, David and
Bathsheba, Susanna and the elders."

"My _dear_ child!" Aunt Victoria gasped.

"Well, Aunt Victoria, they're all in the Bible, at least Susanna and
the elders isn't. That's in the Apocrypha."

Aunt Victoria sat silent a considerable time. At last she said
solemnly: "Beth, I want you to promise me one thing solemnly, and that
is that all your life long, whatever may be before you, whatever it
may be your lot to learn, you will pray to God to preserve your
purity."

"What is purity?" said Beth.

Aunt Victoria hesitated: "It's a condition of the mind which keeps us
from ever doing or saying anything we should be ashamed of," she
finally decided.

"But what kind of things?" Beth asked.

Unfortunately Aunt Victoria was not equal to the occasion. She blinked
her eyes very hard, sipped some tea, and left Beth to find out for
herself, according to custom.

"We must only talk about nice things," she said.

"Well, I shouldn't care to talk nastily about people as Lady Benyon
does sometimes," Beth rejoined.

"But, my dear child, that is not a nice thing to say about Lady
Benyon."

"Isn't it?" said Beth, then added: "Oh dear, how funny things are!"
meaning how complicated.

"Where did you get this tea, Beth?" said Aunt Victoria. "It is very
good, and I feel so much the better for it."

"I thought you wanted something," said Beth. "Your face went all
queer. That means people want something. I got the tea out of the
store-cupboard. It has a rotten lock. If you shake it, it comes
open."

"But what does your mamma say?"

"Oh, she never notices. Or, if she does, she thinks she left it open
herself. Harriet has a little sometimes. She takes it because she says
mamma should allow her a quarter of a pound of dry tea a week, so it
isn't stealing. And I took it for you because you pay to live here, so
you're entitled to the tea. I don't take it for myself, of course. But
I'm afraid I oughtn't to have told you about Harriet. I'm so sorry. It
slipped out. It wasn't sneaking. But I trust to your honour, Aunt
Victoria. If you sneaked on Harriet, I could never trust you again,
now could I?" She got up as she spoke, folded her work, picked u