Page:Women worth emulating (1877) Internet Archive.djvu/117

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ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OF GORDON.
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humility into her mind; and she seems always to have remembered, as well as recorded in her journal, his saying, "If I did all I ought to do, I should still be an unprofitable servant."

At nineteen. Miss Brodie was introduced into society, and was speedily much admired. She seems to have mingled with a gay circle, who thought that, if they gave a sort of patronage to religion by attendance at church in the morning, they might spend the evening in pleasure—even at cards! A reproof that sank deep came to this young lady from a very unexpected quarter. She was very fond of children, and a beautiful child of three or four years old being in the house she was visiting, she amused herself by playing with the little creature and winning its love. One day, however, when she called to her little playfellow, the child would not come, but turned away, saying, —

"No; you are bad—you play cards on Sunday."

Struck to the heart by this admonition, she replied sadly, "I was wrong; I will not do it again;" and she resolutely kept her word. Who can say but that one little seed of truth, wafted on an infantas breath, sunk deep into the recesses of her mind to spring up vigorously in after-days.

In 1813, she married the Marquis of Huntly, and for many years her life resembled that of other merely fashionable people. She was not blessed with children; and she, and her lord, who was many years her senior, travelled much on the