The Bracelets | Page 6

is of
infinitely more consequence to you, an active desire of improvement.
Show me that you have as much perseverance as you have candour, and
I shall not despair of your becoming every thing that I could wish."

Here Cecilia's countenance brightened, and she ran up the steps in
almost as high spirits as she ran down them in the morning.
"Good night to you, Cecilia," said Mrs. Villars, as she was crossing the
hall. "Good night to you, madam," said Cecilia; and she ran up stairs to
bed.
She could not go to sleep, but she lay awake reflecting upon the events
of the preceding day, and forming resolutions for the future; at the same
time, considering that she had resolved, and resolved without effect,
she wished to give her mind some more powerful motive; ambition she
knew to be its most powerful incentive.
"Have I not," said she to herself, "already won the prize of application,
and cannot the same application procure me a much higher prize? Mrs.
Villars said that if the prize had been promised to the most amiable it
would not have been given to me; perhaps it would not
yesterday--perhaps it might not to-morrow; but that is no reason that I
should despair of ever deserving it."
In consequence of this reasoning, Cecilia formed a design of proposing
to her companions that they should give a prize, the first of the ensuing
month (the first of June), to the most amiable. Mrs. Villars applauded
the scheme, and her companions adopted it with the greatest alacrity.
"Let the prize," said they, "be a bracelet of our own hair;" and instantly
their shining scissors were procured, and each contributed a lock of her
hair. They formed the most beautiful gradation of colours, from the
palest auburn to the brightest black. Who was to have the honour of
plaiting them was now the question.
Caroline begged that she might, as she could plait very neatly, she said.
Cecilia, however, was equally sure that she could do it much better, and
a dispute would inevitably have ensued, if Cecilia, recollecting herself
just as her colour rose to scarlet, had not yielded--yielded with no very
good grace indeed, but as well as could be expected for the first time.
For it is habit which confers ease; and without ease, even in moral

actions, there can be no grace.
The bracelet was plaited in the neatest manner by Caroline, finished
round the edge with silver twist, and on it was worked, in the smallest
silver letters, this motto, TO THE MOST AMIABLE. The moment it
was completed, every body begged to try it on. It fastened with little
silver clasps, and as it was made large enough for the eldest girls, it was
too large for the youngest; of this they bitterly complained, and
unanimously entreated that it might be cut to fit them.
"How foolish!" exclaimed Cecilia. "Don't you perceive that, if you win
it, you have nothing to do but to put the clasps a little further from the
edge? but if we get it, we can't make it larger."
"Very true," said they, "but you need not to have called us foolish,
Cecilia!"
It was by such hasty and unguarded expressions as these that Cecilia
offended; a slight difference in the manner makes a very material one
in the effect. Cecilia lost more love by general petulance than she could
gain by the greatest particular exertions.
How far she succeeded in curing herself of this defect, how far she
became deserving of the bracelet, and to whom the bracelet was given,
shall be told in the history of the first of June.

CONTINUATION OF THE BRACELETS.
The first of June was now arrived, and all the young competitors were
in a state of the most anxious suspense. Leonora and Cecilia continued
to be the foremost candidates; their quarrel had never been finally
adjusted, and their different pretensions now retarded all thoughts of a
reconciliation. Cecilia, though she was capable of acknowledging any
of her faults in public before all her companions, could not humble
herself in private to Leonora; Leonora was her equal, they were her
inferiors; and submission is much easier to a vain mind, where it
appears to be voluntary, than when it is the necessary tribute to justice

or candour. So strongly did Cecilia feel this truth that she even delayed
making any apology, or coming to any explanation with Leonora, until
success should once more give her the palm.
If I win the bracelet to-day, said she to herself, I will solicit the return
of Leonora's friendship; it will be more valuable to me than even the
bracelet; and at such a time, and asked in such a manner, she surely
cannot refuse it to