"My husband, who is indeed a most kind counsellor in all things,
says that I ought to tender any assistance I can offer, seeing
that I am near London, and you may require sundry habits
befitting a bridal; if so, command my services as fully as you do
my affections."
Lady Frances placed the letter on Constantia's writing-table, and for
some time offered no observation on its contents.
"Is not she a beautiful model for a married woman?" inquired Constantia.
"It was very good of her to remember a giddy pate like me," replied
Frances; "and I do confess that she is one of my perfections, though in
general I hate your pattern-women, where every thing is fitted and
fitting--women of plaster and parchment--to cut one's character by; who
are to be spoken of, not to; who can make no excuse for people's
failings, because they think they are themselves exempt from fault; who
study devout looks, and leer at their lovers from under their
hoods--hole-and-corner flirts, yet held up as pattern-women, bless the
term! to innocent and laughter-loving maidens like myself, who having no
evil to conceal, speak openly, and love not the conventicle."
"But Mrs. Hutchinson is none of these," interrupted Constance. "She is
pure in heart--in word--in look. She really has nothing to conceal; she
is all purity and grace, and with her husband shared for years the
friendship of the illustrious Selden and Archbishop Usher."
"Well, I am willing to admit all this," retorted Frances, eager to catch
at any thing to divert her friend's melancholy. "But, for all that, I
never could feel easy in the society of your very wise people; it is not
pleasant to know that those you are speaking to regard you as a fool,
though they may be too well-bred to tell you so. And now I remember a
story about Selden that always amused me much. When he was appointed
among the lay members to sit in the Assembly of Divines at Westminster,
one of the ministers, with all the outward show of self-sufficient
ignorance, declared that the sea could not be at any very great distance
from Jerusalem; that as fish was frequently carried from the first to
the last place, the interval did not probably exceed thirty miles! and
having concocted this opinion, he gave it forth, as it had been one of
the laws of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not! Well, the Synod
were about to adopt this inference, when Selden quietly observed, that
in all likelihood it was 'salt fish!' Was not that excellent?"