Aunt Victoria was surprised herself to find how kindly Beth took to a
regular life, how exact she was in the performance of her little
housekeeping duties, and how punctual in everything; she had never
suspected that Beth's whole leaning was towards law and order, nor
observed that even in her most lawless ways there was a certain
system; that she fished, and poached, and prowled, fought Bernadine,
and helped Harriet, as regularly as she dined, and went to bed.
Habits, good or bad, may be formed in an incredibly short time if they
are congenial; the saints by nature will pray, and the sinners sin,
as soon as the example is set them; and Beth, accordingly, fell into
Aunt Victoria's dainty fastidious ways, which were the ways of a
gentlewoman, at once and without effort; and ever afterwards was only
happy in her domestic life when she could live by the same rule in an
atmosphere of equal refinement--an honest atmosphere where everything
was done thoroughly, and every word spoken was perfectly sincere. Of
course she relapsed many times--it was her nature to experiment, to
wander before she settled, to see for herself; but it was by intimacy
with lower natures that she learned fully to appreciate the higher; by
the effect of bad books upon her that she learned the value of good
ones; by the lowering of her whole tone which came of countenancing
laxity in others, and by the discomfort and degradation which follow
on disorder, that she was eventually confirmed in her principles. The
taste for the higher life, once implanted, is not to be eradicated;
and those who have been uplifted by the glory of it once will strive
to attain to it again, inevitably.

It was through the influence of this time that the most charming
traits in Beth's character were finally developed--traits which, but
for the tender discipline of the dear old aunt, might have remained
latent for ever.

It would be misleading, however, to let it be supposed that Beth's
conduct was altogether satisfactory during this visit. On the
contrary, she gave Miss Victoria many an anxious moment; for although
she did all that the old lady required of her, she did many other
things besides, things required of her by her own temperament only.
She had to climb the great tree at the end of the lawn, for instance,
in order to peep into the nest near the top, and also to see into the
demesne beyond the belt of shrubs, where the red-roofed house stood,
peopled now by frien