Her mother would have been the one to speak to about it, and her mother had been too ill. Remembering this, Matilda stood silent and her eyes filled.
"You have been intending it for these two months past?"
"Yes, Aunt Candy; and before."
"Well, then, why did you not speak to me?"
"I spoke to Mr. Richmond."
"Mr. Richmond might have had the courtesy, himself." (Which Mr.
Richmond had meant to do, but various pressing matters had prevented.) "But _you_ ought to have spoken to me, Matilda. You are too young a child to take such responsibility."
Matilda did not think of anything to say to this.
"I do not think you understand what you have been doing."
"I think I do, Aunt Candy."
"What did you want to be baptized for?"
"Because Jesus says we must."
"Yes, properly; but not improperly, without knowing what you do. What do you think it means, Matilda?"
"To be baptized, Aunt Erminia?"
"Yes."
"It means," said the child steadily, and with the clear utterance of pleasure, "that I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ."
"There!" said Clarissa, appealing to her mother.
"I thought so," said Mrs. Candy. "That is not what it means, Matilda."
"It is what I mean, Aunt Candy."
"It means a great deal more, my dear, which you cannot understand. And you ought to have had a white dress on."
"I don"t think G.o.d cares," said Matilda.
"Did you ever hear such dreadful teaching as these people have?" said the mother, appealing to the daughter. "My dear, there is a propriety in things. And not one of the candidates this evening was dressed in white."
"But the water means a clean heart," said Matilda; "and if we have that, G.o.d will think we are dressed in white."
"So you think you have a clean heart?"
"I think Jesus has begun to make it clean."
"And what does it mean to renounce the devil and all his works?"
"It means," said Matilda, sighing, "to have nothing to do with anything that is wrong."
"How is such a child as you to know what is wrong?"
"Why, the Bible, Aunt Candy."
"What is the vain pomp and glory of the world?"
"I don"t know," said Matilda. "_All_ the glory, I suppose, except what G.o.d gives."
"What does _He_ give, child?" said Mrs. Candy, with an odd expression on her face.
"Why, you know, Aunt Erminia," said Matilda, a little wearily.
"I should like to hear you tell."
"I can"t tell," said Matilda. "I think it was glory, when He said of that poor woman, "She hath done what she could.""
"My dear," said Mrs. Candy, after a pause, "I am very sorry you have taken this step without consulting me. Your answers show that you have not the discrimination necessary for making such vows. However, it is too late now. You may go to bed."
Which Matilda did, and speedily forgot all that had troubled her in her aunt"s words. For she went to sleep making a pillow to her head of those other words--
"And white robes were given to every one of them."