Tales from Many Sources | Page 2

their father who got the land from his uncle's dying
childless, sons being scarce in the family. They were heiresses, finally,
to the place and the farm, to the furniture that was made when folk
seasoned their wood before they worked it, to a diamond brooch which
they wore by turns, besides two diamond rings, and two black lace
shawls, that had belonged to their mother and their Auntie Jean, long
since departed thither where neither moth nor rust corrupt the true
riches.
As to the incomings of Lingborough, "It was nobody's business but
their own," as Miss Betty said to the lawyer who was their man of
business, and whom they consulted on little matters of rent and repairs
at as much length, and with as much formal solemnity, as would have
gone elsewhere to the changing hands of half a million of money.

Without violating their confidence, however, we may say that the estate
paid its way, kept them in silk stockings, and gave them new tabbinet
dresses once in three years. It supplied their wants the better that they
had inherited house plenishing from their parents, "Which they thanked
their stars was not made of tag-rag, and would last their time," and that
they were quite content with an old home and old neighbours, and
never desired to change the grand air that blew about their native hills
for worse, in order to be poisoned with bad butter, and make the
fortunes of extortionate lodging-house keepers.
The rental of Lingborough did more. How much more the little old
ladies did not know themselves, and no one else shall know, till that
which was done in secret is proclaimed from the housetops.
For they had had a religious scruple, founded upon a literal reading of
the scriptural command that a man's left hand should not know what
has right hand gives in alms, and this scruple had been ingeniously set
at rest by the parson, who, failing in an attempt to explain the force of
Eastern hyperbole to the little ladies' satisfaction, had said that Miss
Betty, being the elder, and the head of the house, might be likened to
the right hand, and Miss Kitty, as the younger, to the left, and that if
they pursued their good works without ostentation, or desiring the
applause even of each other, the spirit of the injunction would be
fulfilled.
The parson was a good man and a clever. He had (as Miss Betty justly
said) a very spiritual piety. But he was also gifted with much
shrewdness in dealing with the various members of his flock. And his
word was law to the sisters.
Thus it came about that the little ladies' charities were not known even
to each other--that Miss Betty turned her morning camlet twice instead
of once, and Miss Kitty denied herself in sugar, to carry out benevolent
little projects which were accomplished in secret, and of which no
record appears in the Lingborough Ledger.

AT TEA WITH MRS. DUNMAW.
The little ladies of Lingborough were very sociable, and there was, as
they said, "as much gaiety as was good for anyone" within their reach.
There were at least six houses at which they drank tea from time to
time, all within a walk. As hosts or guests, you always met the same
people, which was a friendly arrangement, and the programmes of the
entertainments were so uniform, that no one could possibly feel
awkward. The best of manners and home-made wines distinguished
these tea parties, where the company was strictly genteel, if a little
faded. Supper was served at nine, and the parson and the lawyer played
whist for love with different partners on different evenings with strict
impartiality.
Small jealousies are apt to be weak points in small societies, but there
was a general acquiescence in the belief that the parson had a friendly
preference for the little ladies of Lingborough.
He lived just beyond them, too, which led to his invariably escorting
them home. Miss Betty and Miss Kitty would not for worlds have been
so indelicate as to take this attention for granted, though it was a
custom of many years' standing. The older sister always went through
the form of asking the younger to "see if the servant had come," and at
this signal the parson always bade the lady of the house good night, and
respectfully proffered his services as an escort to Lingborough.
It was a lovely evening in June, when the little ladies took tea with the
widow of General Dunmaw at her cottage, not quite two miles from
their own home.
It was a memorable evening. The tea party was an agreeable one. The
little ladies had new tabbinets on, and Miss Kitty wore the diamond
brooch. Miss Betty