By-and-by we came to packets of Miss Jenkyns's letters. These Miss
Matty did regret to burn. She said all the others had been only
interesting to those who loved the writers, and that it seemed as
if it would have hurt her to allow them to fall into the hands of
strangers, who had not known her dear mother, and how good she was,
although she did not always spell, quite in the modern fashion; but
Deborah's letters were so very superior! Any one might profit by
reading them. It was a long time since she had read Mrs Chapone,
but she knew she used to think that Deborah could have said the
same things quite as well; and as for Mrs Carter! people thought a
deal of her letters, just because she had written "Epictetus," but
she was quite sure Deborah would never have made use of such a
common expression as "I canna be fashed!"
Miss Matty did grudge burning these letters, it was evident. She
would not let them be carelessly passed over with any quiet
reading, and skipping, to myself. She took them from me, and even
lighted the second candle in order to read them aloud with a proper
emphasis, and without stumbling over the big words. Oh dear! how I
wanted facts instead of reflections, before those letters were
concluded! They lasted us two nights; and I won't deny that I made
use of the time to think of many other things, and yet I was always
at my post at the end of each sentence.
Pages:
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92