Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/205

Rh there were positive evils, bred of indolence and luxury, and the poor old lady had to be made aware that these dishonest and vicious servants were making her appear to tolerate the sins she had testified against through life.

She was terribly distressed, but as soon as she knew the truth, her resolution was taken at once. The servants were dismissed, and on a cold inclement day, she left her beloved home for Clifton. Things must have come to a grievous pass, for several of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood waited at her chamber door to protect her from anything that would distress her. She descended the stairs with a placid countenance, and then walked silently round the lower rooms, looking up at the portraits of all the dear old friends long since passed away; then, when settled in the carriage with Miss Frowd, she gazed out on her trees and garden, and said, "I am like Eve, driven from Paradise, but not, like Eve, by angels."

Yet of these wretched servants she said, "People exclaim against their ingratitude towards me, but it is their sinfulness towards God that forms the melancholy part of the case."