Bridget, having been for some years under the training and surveillance of Grace Seymour, was more than usually competent as cook and provider; but Bridget had abundance of the Irish astuteness, which led her to feel the genius of circumstances, and to shape her course accordingly.
With Grace, she had been accurate, saving, and economical; for Miss Grace was so.

Bridget had felt, under her sway, the beauty of that economy which saves because saving is in itself so fitting and so respectable; and because, in this way, a power for a wise generosity is accumulated.

She was sympathetic with the ruling spirit of the establishment.
But, under the new mistress, Bridget declined in virtue.

The announcement that the mistress of a family isn't going to give herself any trouble, nor bother her head with care about any thing, is one the influence of which is felt downward in every department.

Why should Bridget give herself any trouble to save and economize for a mistress who took none for herself?
She had worked hard all her life, why not take it easy?
And it was so much easier to send daily a basket of cold victuals to her cousin on Vine Street than to contrive ways of making the most of things, that Bridget felt perfectly justified in doing it.
If, once in a while, a little tea and a paper of sugar found their way into the same basket, who would ever miss it?
The seamstress was an elegant lady.