How odd it will be to be without Bellairs! I will ask Mrs.Larpent." "Oh, yes!" said Margaret.

"You must not think we meant to advise; but papa has seen so many instances of distress, from servants not spared to their friends in illness, that he feels strongly on the subject." "And I really might have been as cruel as that woman!" said Meta.

"Well, I hope Mrs.Bellairs may be better, and able to spare her daughter.

I don't know what will become of me without her." "I think it will have been a satisfaction in one way," said Margaret.
"In what way ?" "Don't you remember what you began by complaining of, that you could not be of use?
Now, I fancy this would give you the pleasure of undergoing a little personal inconvenience for the good of another." Meta looked half puzzled, half thoughtful, and Margaret, who was a little uneasy at the style of counsel she found herself giving, changed the conversation.
It was a memorable one to little Miss Rivers, opening out to her, as did almost all her meetings with that family, a new scope for thought and for duty.

The code to which she had been brought up taught that servants were the machines of their employer's convenience.