Paula the Waldensian - Eva Lecomte

espect your elders."
Paula looked at him with surprise. "I don't understand, uncle. Those
words are written in the New Testament."
"Show them to me," ordered my father.
Paula, glad to escape for a moment, ran for her Bible, which was always
beside her in our little bedroom. As she crossed the threshold, Teresa entered
to carry away the dishes. "What now? What's the matter?" said the old
servant as she looked at Paula's tearful face. "What on earth have you been
crying about, poor child?"
My father answered for her. "She's been guilty of most incredible
impertinence."
"That's strange," said the old servant. "That's not a bit like her, with her
happy, humble ways with all of us."
"That may be," said my father, "but it's just as I feared. She's got all the
ideas of her father's family. She talks of nothing but God and the Bible and
of her religion, and that's insupportable in this house."
"Oh, do go slow, sir," Teresa implored. "She's a mere child yet."
"Yes, but she must obey."
Teresa contented herself with a shrug of her shoulders, for she saw that
my father was not going to yield. And now Paula had returned with her Bible
in hand.
"And now," said my father, after a moment of silence, "let us see those
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