148
SHIANA
Peg.—O fie, Abbie! how did she know but that she might go there herself?
Abbie.—I dare say she did not say it from her heart. She was angry, and she had cause.
Sheila.—I don't think anybody need have said it to that gentleman who evicted the people and pulled down the shed.
Peg.—Why not, Sheila?
Sheila.—Because God (praise be to Him!) will do it without being asked.
Peg.—What will he do, Sheila?
Sheila.—He will send that gentleman to hell.
Peg.—How do we know, Sheila, that the gentleman will not do penance?
Sheila.—His penance won't do unless he builds up the house again and puts the people back into it, safe and sound, as they were before; and gives them money for the damage he did them.
Kate.—Bravo, Sheila! That is the way to talk I What a pity you don't make the laws for us; you would soon put the gentlemen into their proper place, and that is badly wanted. But look here, Peg, surely gentlemen never do penance, do they?
Peg.—Why, what put that into your head, Kate?
Kate.—Well, I have always heard of their bad doings; of the wrong and the ruin that they inflict upon the poor—crushing and grinding them, and turning them out into cold and wandering—and I never heard that any of them repented or made reparation. It is the poor who are always doing penance. It is a strange thing.
Peg.—Oh, indeed, Kate, gentry do penance, too.
