Page:The Clergyman's Wife.djvu/208

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Prudentia.


We call her Prudentia; not that it is the name written on her brow with holy, baptismal waters, but because the word expresses her individuality. In the hereafter, when we receive new names, as we enter the great eternal land, will not those appellations typify our attributes? It is perhaps some vague, internal prefiguring of that true name-giving which impels certain minds to bestow upon their associates pet names, nick-names, names suggestive of character. And this spontaneous prompting makes us style the wise and thoughtful mother of a certain orderly little household, "Prudentia."

How is it that Prudentia, with a purse so shallow, conducts the affairs of her home department with such seeming ease and comfort? No painfully obvious "managing" is apparent. Her system entails no constant thrusting of her economy in one's face, no holding forth about the necessity of saving, and no parade of poverty, which, by the bye, is just as vulgar as the boast of riches. Parade of poverty? Yes, we use the expression advisedly; for the

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