home.
Such an expedition was so uncommon an event in the lives of the inhabitants of the schoolroom, that those who stayed at home were as excited about it as those who went, and a full and particular account was expected of all they had seen and all they had done. Caroline and Lionel both seemed to think Marian a perfect miracle of courage in voluntarily consenting to lose a tooth.
'And I am sure,' said Caroline as they sat at tea, 'I cannot now understand what made you have it done.'
'To oblige a countryman,' said Marian laughing.
'Well, but what was your real reason?' persisted Caroline.
'Mrs. Lyddell thought it best, and so did the dentist,' said Marian.
'O,' said Caroline, 'he only said so because it was his trade.'
'Then how could Mrs. Lyddell depend on him?' said Marian, gravely.
'Dentists never are to be depended on,' said Caroline; 'they only try to fill their own pockets like other people.'
'You forget,' said Lionel, 'Devonshire men are not like other people.'
'O yes, I beg their pardon,' said Caroline, while every one laughed except Gerald; who thought the praise only their due.
'But why did you have it done?' said Clara, returning to the charge; 'I am sure I never would.'
'Yes, but Marian is not you,' said Lionel.
'You would have disobeyed no one,' said Caroline.
'I do not know,' said Marian, thinking of one whom she would have disobeyed by showing weakness.
'Then did you think it wrong not to have that tooth drawn?' said Caroline.
'I do not know.'
'Did you think it right to have it done?'
'I do not know, unless that I did not like it.'
'Do you mean to say that not liking a thing makes it right?' exclaimed Clara.
'Very often,' said Marian.
'Miss Morley, now is not that Popish?' cried Clara.
'Perhaps your cousin can explain herself,' said Miss Morley.
'Yes, do,' said Caroline, 'you must tell us what you mean.'
'I don't know,' was Marian's first answer; but while uttering the reply, the real reason arranged itself in words; and finding she must speak clearly, she said, 'Self-denial is always best, and in a doubtful case, the most disagreeable is always the safest.'
Miss Morley said that Marian was right in many instances, but that this was not a universal rule, and so the conversation ended.
Chapter VI.
