"My aunt thought of it," said Fanny, "and as she seems to find the

children too much--"

She broke off, for Mrs. Curtis had paused to let her introduce the

subject, but poor Fanny had never taken the initiative, and Rachel did

it for her by explaining that all had come on the same errand, to ask

if Miss Williams would undertake the lessons of her nephews; Lady

Temple softly murmured under her veil something about hopes and too much

trouble; an appointment was made for the following morning, and Mrs.

Curtis, with a general sensation of an oppressive multitude in a small

room, took her leave, and the company departed, Fanny, all the way home,

hoping that the other Miss Williams would be like her sister, pitying

the cripple, wishing that the sisters were in the remotest degree

military, so as to obtain the respect of the hoys, and wondering what

would be the Major's opinion.

"So many ladies!" exclaimed little Rose. "Aunt Ermine, have they made

your head ache?"

"No, my dear, thank you, I am only tired. If you will pull out the rest

for my feet, I will be quiet a little, and be ready for tea when Aunt

Ailie comes."

The child handily converted the chair into a couch, arranging the dress

and coverings with the familiarity of long use, and by no means shocked

by the contraction and helplessness of the lower limbs, to which she had

been so much accustomed all her life that it never even occurred to

her to pity Aunt Ermine, who never treated herself as an object of

compassion. She was thanked by a tender pressure on her hair, and then

saying-"Now I shall wish Augustus good night; bring Violetta home from her play

in the garden, and let her drink tea, and go to bed."

Ah, Violetta, purchased with a silver groat, what was not your value

in Mackarel Lane? Were you not one of its most considered inhabitants,

scarcely less a child of Aunt Ermine and Aunt Alison than their Rosebud

herself?

Murmur, murmur, rippled the child's happy low-toned monologue directed

to her silent but sufficient playmate, and so far from disturbing the

aunt, that more than one smile played on her lips at the quaint fancies,

and at the well of gladness in the young spirit, which made day after

day of the society of a cripple and an old doll, one constant song of

bliss, one dream of bright imaginings. Surely it was an equalization

of blessings that rendered little lonely Rose, motherless and well nigh

fatherless, poor, with no companion but a crippled aunt, a bird and a

toad, with scarcely a toy, and never a party of pleasure, one of the

most joyous beings under the sun, free from occasions of childish

troubles, without collisions of temper, with few contradictions, and

with lessons rather pleasure than toil. Perhaps Ermine did not take

into account the sunshiny content and cheerfulness that made herself

a delightful companion and playfellow, able to accept the child as her

solace, not her burthen.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024