reflecting that all this order and propriety were produced without the
smallest deduction from mental cultivation.

I could not refrain from mentioning this to Mrs. Stanley. She was not
displeased with my observation, though she cautiously avoided saying any
thing which might be construed into a wish to set off her daughter. As
she seemed surprised at my knowledge of the large share her Lucilla had
in the direction of the family concerns, I could not, in the imprudence
of my satisfaction, conceal the conversation I had had with my old
friend Mrs. Comfit.

After this avowal she felt that any reserve on this point would look
like affectation, a littleness which would have been unworthy of her
character. "I am frequently blamed by my friends," said she, "for taking
some of the load from my own shoulders, and laying it on hers. 'Poor
thing, she is too young!' is the constant cry of the fashionable
mothers. My general answer is, you do not think your daughters of the
same age too young to be married, though you know marriage must bring
with it these, and still heavier cares. Surely then Lucilla is not too
young to be initiated into that useful knowledge which will hereafter
become no inconsiderable part of her duty. The acquisition would be
really burdensome then, if it were not lightened by preparatory practice
now. I have, I trust, convinced my daughters, that though there is no
great merit in possessing this sort of knowledge, yet to be destitute of
it is highly discreditable."

In several houses where I had visited, I had observed the forwardness of
the parents, the mother especially, to make a display of the daughter's
merits: "so dutiful! so notable! such an excellent nurse!" The girl was
then called out to sing or to play, and was thus, by that
_inconsistency_ which my good mother deprecated, kept in the full
exhibition of those very talents which are most likely to interfere with
nursing and notableness. But since I had been on my present visit, I had
never once heard my friends extol their Lucilla, or bring forward any of
her excellences. I had however observed their eyes fill with a delight,
which they could not suppress, when her merits were the subject of the
praise of others.

I took notice of this difference of conduct to Mrs. Stanley. "I have
often," said she, "been so much hurt at the indelicacy to which you
allude, that I very early resolved to avoid it. If the girl in question
does not deserve the comme