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ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 497
No, we all loved her. The children would howl at the idea of
parting with their Miss Grigsby. Charlotte, in return, helped
them to very pretty lessons in music and French—served hot, as
it were, from her own recent studies at Tours—and a good daily
governess operated on the rest of their education to everybody's
satisfaction.
And so months rolled on and our young favourite still remained
with us. Mamma fed the little maid's purse with occasional remittances
; and begged her hostess to supply her with all necessary
articles from the milliner. Afterwards, it is true, Mrs. General
Baynes . . . But why enter upon these painful family disputes
in a chapter which has been devoted to sentiment ?
As soon as Mr. Firmin received the letter above faithfully
copied (with the exception of the pecuniary offer, which I do not
consider myself at liberty to divulge), he hurried down from Thornhaugh
Street to Westminster. He dashed by Buttons, the page ;
he took no notice of my wondering wife at the drawing-room door;
he rushed to the second-floor, bursting open the schoolroom door,
where Charlotte was teaching our dear third daughter to play " In
my Cottage near a Wood."
" Charlotte ! Charlotte !" he cried out.
" La, Philip ! don't you see Miss Grigsby is giving us lessons ?"
said the children.
But he would not listen to those wags, and still beckoned
Charlotte to him. That young woman rose up and followed him
out of the door, as, indeed, she would have followed him out of
the window ; and there, on the stairs, they read Dr. Firmin's letter,
with their heads quite close together, you understand.
" Two hundred a year more," said Philip, his heart throbbing
so that he could hardly speak ; " and your fifty—and two hundred
the Gazette—and __________ "
" Oh, Philip !" was all Charlotte could say, and then _________ There
was a pretty group for the children to see, and for an artist to draw !
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