The Silent Governess

Come to think of it, she did not speak a word. Yet I could have sworn she had the most beautiful voice.

When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn.

At the door he turned and looked back. She stood, facing away from him, the sunlight from the window enshrouding her in an unmerited halo of gold. Perhaps, he thought, that was how God saw all His children. Selfish and fallen, yes. But in the forgiving light of His Son, each wore an unmerited halo

How long had it had been since she'd thought back on the evenings around the fire, number games at the kitchen table, or listening to her father sing? Too long. Yes, there had been bad times. And she had tallied them like figures in a column, not remembering to factor in the good. She had doctored the books.

You do not esteem good deeds?" She shifted the basket handle to both hands, just as a cool breeze blew a bonnet string across her face. "My dear Miss Keene, what would the world be without them?" He brushed the string from her cheek. "Are we not admonished to be doers and not merely hearers of His word? Yet not on a mountain of good deeds can we climb our way to heaven.

I would never believe it of you, my boy, regardless of the schemers your mother and sister turned out to be. You may not be the most clever boy, nor the most prudent, nor the most gentlemanlike, nor..." Edward cleared his throat. "Right! But you have a good heart, and I have every hope that with the proper education and mentoring you will be credit to the family yet.

Shut your trap, boy. You are hereby disinherited. Davies! I want a new will.

The virtue of silence is highly commendable, and will contribute greatly to your ease and prosperity. The best proof of wisdom is to talk little, but to hear much. . . . —SAMUEL & SARAH ADAMS, THE COMPLETE SERVANT, 1825

You do trust Mr. Tugwell, do you not?” Did he? Trust Tugwell with his secret? Perhaps. Trust him with Miss Keene? The man had fathered five children in six years. No, he did not trust Charles Tugwell with Miss Keene.

Whenever you give any living creature cause to depend on you, be careful on no account to disappoint it.

Remember Who it is that has placed you in your present position; perhaps you have no home, perhaps you have experienced a reverse of fortune; no matter what! It is God who has willed it so, therefore look to Him for guidance and protection. —HINTS TO GOVERNESSES, BY ONE OF THEMSELVES, 1856