Girlhood and Womanhood | Page 7

we would slip them off on each other, and pick and
choose, and be guilty of a great many selfish, dishonourable
proceedings."
"Lilias is the wise woman in the household. I'm aware there is a wise
woman in every family--but how comes it that Lilias is the authority
with us? It always rather puzzles me, Joanna; for when I used to
implore Miss Swan to accept her salary, and pay Dominie Macadam his
lawful demand of wages for paving the boys' brains in preparation for
the High School, they always complimented me with the assurance that
you were my clever daughter."
"Because they saw your weak side, I dare say, my dear," suggests Mrs.
Crawfurd.
"No, I am the cleverest, papa; I am so deep that I see that it is easier to
live under an absolute monarchy than to announce myself a member of
a republic, and assert my prerogatives and defend my privileges--but I
confess I have a temper, papa. Lilias says I am very self-willed, and I

must grant that she is generally in the right."
"You don't feel satisfied with the bridle, child, till it gets into stronger
hands."
"Yes, Joanna has a temper," chimed in Mrs. Crawfurd, pursuing her
own thread of the conversation. "Strangers think her softer than Susan;
but I have seen her violent, and when she takes it into her head, she is
the most stubborn of the whole family. I don't mean to scold you, my
dear; you are a very good girl, too, but you are quite a deception."
"Oh, mamma! what a character!" Joanna could not help laughing. "I
must amend my ways."
Of course, Joanna was violent at times, as we imagine a sensitive girl
with an abhorrence of meanness and vice, and she was stubborn when
she was convinced of the right and her friends would assert the wrong.
Mr. Crawfurd's idea was, that Joanna had a temper like Cordelia, not
when she spoke in her pleased accents, "gentle, soft, and low," but
when she was goaded into vehemence, as will happen in the best
regulated palaces and households.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Crawfurd, five minutes afterwards,
disturbing the cosy little party round the tea-table by her sudden air of
distress. "Oh! dear, dear me! Susie has left her pearl sprigs behind her.
There they are on the loo-table. My pearl sprigs, Mr. Crawfurd, that I
used to wear when I was young; they have come in again for the hair,
and Susie settled they were just the thing to give a more dressed look to
her spring silk--these easy way parties are so ill to manage, and Polly
was of the same mind, and she came in to show me the effect, for I
always like to see the girls after they are dressed, and be satisfied how
they look--and there she has forgotten the box, and she will appear
quite a dowdy, and be so vexed."
"I don't think it will signify very much, mamma; Susan looks very well
in her blue silk."
"But it is such a pity, Joanna; so unfortunate,--she only put them out of

her hand for one moment, and you see there they are still;" and so Mrs.
Crawfurd sounded the lamentation, and dwelt on its salient points, and
ingeniously extracted new grounds of regret, till, by dint of repetition,
in ten minutes more Mr. Crawfurd and Joanna were almost persuaded
that Susan had sustained a serious loss.
"Send a servant with the foolery," proposed Mr. Crawfurd, seeking a
little relief, and tolerably affronted at his interest in the question.
"I don't think it would do. Would it, Joanna? There is always such
confusion at Hurlton when there is company? and then they have
people dining. There would be a mistake, and my pearls are no joke,
Mr. Crawfurd. They cost papa fifty pounds when they were so prettily
set to go to Sir William's ball. Ah! you don't remember it. There would
be a fuss, and Lilias would not like it. If Oliver had not been there at
dinner, or Charlie had been at home--"
"Of the two evils choose the least," recommended Mr. Crawfurd, taking
up his book.
"If you are very anxious, mamma," said Joanna, "as it is very early, and
they set out to walk round by the garden at Houndswood to get some
geraniums, which Polly saw yesterday, and set her heart upon; if you
order out the ponies and Sandy, I think Conny and I could easily ride
over to Hurlton, and deliver the little parcel to the girls in time. It
would be a nice evening ride for us, since you are afraid that Conny
hangs too much over her books."
"Thank you, dear; that is just like you, Joanna, you are so sensible and
helpful,