There was a sense of solid property to be derived from being able to
take in at a glance the stock of well-mended under-garments, half of
which were generally at the wash. Besides, they had been added to, and
all the stockings were darned, and only one pair in the legs where it
would show, below short petticoat mark.
Then there was a bonnet newly turned and trimmed, and a pair and a
half of new boots, for surely boots are at least half new when they
have been (as the village cobbler described it in his bill) "souled
and healed"?
Poor little Madam Liberality! When she saw the things which covered
her bed in their abundance, it seemed to her an outfit for a princess.
And yet when her godmother asked Podmore, the lady's-maid, "How is the
child off for clothes?" Podmore unhesitatingly replied, "She've
nothing fit to be seen, ma'am," which shows how differently the same
things appear in different circumstances.
Podmore was a good friend to Madam Liberality. She had that
open-handed spirit which one acquires quite naturally in a house where
everything goes on on a large scale, at somebody else's expense. Now
Madam Liberality's godmother, from the very largeness of her
possessions, was obliged to leave the care of them to others, in such
matters as food, dress, the gardens, the stables, etc.
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