Maria Edgeworth

The Bracelets Maria Edgeworth

And yet I think you would love me; for I hope that I am as ready to oblige, and as good-natured, as----" "Yes, Cecilia, I don't doubt but that you would be very good-natured to me, but I am afraid that I should not like you unless you were good-tempered too." "But, ma'am, by good-natured I mean good-tempered--it's all the same thing." "No, indeed, I understand by them two very different things. You are good-natured, Cecilia, for you are desirous to oblige and serve your companions, to gain them praise and save them from blame, to give them pleasure, and to relieve them from pain; but Leonora is good-tempered, for she can bear with their foibles, and acknowledge her own. Without disputing about the right, she sometimes yields to those who are in the wrong. In short, her temper is perfectly good, for it can bear and forbear."

"I wish that mine could," said Cecilia, sighing.

"It may," replied Mrs. Villars; "but it is not wishes alone which can improve us in any thing. Turn the sam.....