Sometimes on these still, warm afternoons her lips parted, as if she were singing.  But it was a very grave, quiet performance.  There was none of the gush and warmth of song, although the words she uttered were always those of the hymns of Charles Wesley—­those passionate, religious songs of the New Jerusalem.  For Mrs. Simcoe was a Methodist, and with Methodist hymns she had sung Hope to sleep in the days when she was a baby; so that the young woman often listened to the music in church with a heart full of vague feelings, and dim, inexplicable memories, not knowing that she was hearing, though with different words, the strains that her nurse had whispered over her crib in the hymns of Wesley.

It is to be presumed that at some period Mrs. Simcoe, whom Mr. Burt always addressed in the same manner as “Mrs. Simcoe, ma’am,” had received a general system of instruction to the effect that “My grand-daughter, Miss Wayne—­Mrs. Simcoe, ma’am—­will marry a gentleman of wealth and position; and I expect her to be fitted to preside over his household.  Yes, Mrs. Simcoe, ma’am.”

What on earth is a girl sent into this world for but to make a proper match, and not disgrace her husband—­to keep his house, either directly or by a deputy—­to take care of his children, to see that his slippers are warm and his Madeira cold, and his beef not burned to a cinder, Mrs. Simcoe, ma’am?  Christopher Burt believed that a man’s wife was a more sacred piece of private property than his sheep-pasture, and when he delivered the deed of any such property he meant that it should be in perfect order.

“Hope may marry a foreign minister, Mrs. Simcoe, ma’am.  Who knows?  She may marry a large merchant in town or a large planter at the South, who will be obliged to entertain a great deal, and from all parts of the world.  I intend that she shall be fit for the situation, that she shall preside at her husband’s table in a superior manner.”

So Hope, as a child, had played with little girls, who were invited to Pinewood—­select little girls, who came in the prettiest frocks and behaved in the prettiest way, superintended by nurses and ladies’ maids.  They tended their dolls peaceably in the nursery; they played clean little games upon the lawn.  Not too noisy, Ellen!  Mary, gently, gently, dear!  Julia, carefully! you are tumbling your frock.  They were not chattery French nurses who presided over these solemnities; they were grave, housekeeping, Mrs. Simcoe-kind of people.  Julia and Mary were exhorted to behave themselves like little ladies, and the frolic ended by their all taking books from the library shelves and sitting properly in a large chair, or on the sofa, or even upon the piazza, if it had been nicely dusted and inspected, until the setting sun sent them away with the calmest kisses at parting.