meant) before every sentence, booming at one like a great bee; who
always prefaced a lecture with a "my dear;" who would not read a paper
until it was warmed; who would burn every cinder before fresh coals were
allowed on the fire; who looked reproachfully at my crumbs (I crumbled
my bread purposely at last), and scooped them carefully in his hand for
the benefit of the birds, with the invariable remark, "Waste not, want
not," a saying I learnt to detest?

I suppose if we are ever admitted into heaven we shall find very odd
people there; but perhaps they will have dropped their trying ways and
peculiarities, as the chrysalis drops its case, and may develop all
sorts of new prismatic glories. I once heard a lady say that she was
afraid the society there would be rather mixed; she was a very exclusive
person; but Solomon tells us that there is nothing new under the sun, so
I suppose we shall never be without our modern Pharisees and Sadducees.
The grand idea to me is that there will be room for all. I do not know
when the idea first came to me that it was a mean thing to live under a
man's roof, eating his bread and warming oneself at his fire, and all
the time despising him in one's heart. I only know that one day the idea
took possession of me, and, like an Eastern mustard seed, grew and
flourished. Soon after that Uncle Keith had rather a serious loss--some
mercantile venture in which he was interested had come to grief. I began
to notice small retrenchments in the household; certain little luxuries
were given up. Now and then Aunt Agatha grew a little grave as she
balanced her weekly accounts. One night I took myself to task.

"What business have you, a strong, healthy, young woman," I observed to
myself, severely, "to be a burthen on these good folk? What is enough
for two may be a tight fit for three; it was that new mantle of yours,
Miss Merle, that has put out the drawing-room fire for three weeks, and