Anne found in Mrs Smith the good sense and agreeable manners which she

had almost ventured to depend on, and a disposition to converse and be

cheerful beyond her expectation. Neither the dissipations of the

past--and she had lived very much in the world--nor the restrictions of

the present, neither sickness nor sorrow seemed to have closed her

heart or ruined her spirits.

In the course of a second visit she talked with great openness, and

Anne's astonishment increased. She could scarcely imagine a more

cheerless situation in itself than Mrs Smith's. She had been very fond

of her husband: she had buried him. She had been used to affluence:

it was gone. She had no child to connect her with life and happiness

again, no relations to assist in the arrangement of perplexed affairs,

no health to make all the rest supportable. Her accommodations were

limited to a noisy parlour, and a dark bedroom behind, with no

possibility of moving from one to the other without assistance, which

there was only one servant in the house to afford, and she never

quitted the house but to be conveyed into the warm bath. Yet, in spite

of all this, Anne had reason to believe that she had moments only of

languor and depression, to hours of occupation and enjoyment. How

could it be? She watched, observed, reflected, and finally determined

that this was not a case of fortitude or of resignation only. A

submissive spirit might be patient, a strong understanding would supply

resolution, but here was something more; here was that elasticity of

mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily

from evil to good, and of finding employment which carried her out of

herself, which was from nature alone. It was the choicest gift of

Heaven; and Anne viewed her friend as one of those instances in which,

by a merciful appointment, it seems designed to counterbalance almost

every other want.

There had been a time, Mrs Smith told her, when her spirits had nearly

failed. She could not call herself an invalid now, compared with her

state on first reaching Bath. Then she had, indeed, been a pitiable

object; for she had caught cold on the journey, and had hardly taken

possession of her lodgings before she was again confined to her bed and

suffering under severe and constant pain; and all this among strangers,

with the absolute necessity of having a regular nurse, and finances at

that moment particularly unfit to meet any extraordinary expense. She

had weathered it, however, and could truly say that it had done her

good. It had increased her comforts by making her feel herself to be

in good hands. She had seen too much of the world, to expect sudden or

disinterested attachment anywhere, but her illness had proved to her

that her landlady had a character to preserve, and would not use her

ill; and she had been particularly fortunate in her nurse, as a sister

of her landlady, a nurse by profession, and who had always a home in

that house when unemployed, chanced to be at liberty just in time to

attend her. "And she," said Mrs Smith, "besides nursing me most

admirably, has really proved an invaluable acquaintance. As soon as I

could use my hands she taught me to knit, which has been a great

amusement; and she put me in the way of making these little

thread-cases, pin-cushions and card-racks, which you always find me so

busy about, and which supply me with the means of doing a little good

to one or two very poor families in this neighbourhood. She had a

large acquaintance, of course professionally, among those who can

afford to buy, and she disposes of my merchandise. She always takes

the right time for applying. Everybody's heart is open, you know, when

they have recently escaped from severe pain, or are recovering the

blessing of health, and Nurse Rooke thoroughly understands when to

speak. She is a shrewd, intelligent, sensible woman. Hers is a line

for seeing human nature; and she has a fund of good sense and

observation, which, as a companion, make her infinitely superior to

thousands of those who having only received 'the best education in the

world,' know nothing worth attending to. Call it gossip, if you will,

but when Nurse Rooke has half an hour's leisure to bestow on me, she is

sure to have something to relate that is entertaining and profitable:

something that makes one know one's species better. One likes to hear

what is going on, to be au fait as to the newest modes of being

trifling and silly. To me, who live so much alone, her conversation, I

assure you, is a treat."




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