"No, I suppose not," said Fleda sighing. "Isn't it very strange, aunt Miriam, that it should make people worse instead of better to have everything go pleasantly with them?"
"It is because they are apt then to be so full of the present that they forget the care of the future."
"Yes, and forget there is anything better than the present, I suppose," said Fleda.
"So we mustn't fret at the ways our Father takes to keep us from hurting ourselves?" said aunt Miriam cheerfully.
"O no!" said Fleda, looking up brightly in answer to the tender manner in which these words were spoken;--"and I didn't mean that this is much of a trouble--only I am very glad to think that somebody is coming to-morrow."
Aunt Miriam thought that gentle unfretful face could not stand in need of much discipline.
Chapter XXI.
Wise men alway
Affyrme and say,
That best is for a man
Diligently,
For to apply,
The business that he can.
More.
Fleda waited for Barby's coming the next day with a little anxiety. The introduction and installation however were happily got over. Mrs. Rossitur, as Fleda knew, was most easily pleased; and Barby Elster's quick eye was satisfied with the unaffected and universal gentleness and politeness of her new employer. She made herself at home in half an hour; and Mrs. Rossitur and Fleda were comforted to perceive, by unmistakeable signs, that their presence was not needed in the kitchen and they might retire to their own premises and forget there was another part of the house. Fleda had forgotten it utterly, and deliciously enjoying the rest of mind and body she was stretched upon the sofa, luxuriating over some volume from her remnant of a library; when the inner door was suddenly pushed open far enough to admit the entrance of Miss Elster's head.