"WELL, those are three as ladies as I wish to see," said Mrs. Hopkinson, when her guests had departed; "and as for that Lady Chester, I'm in love with her. She thinks so much of your father, and spoke in such a way of him. I wish John had her!"
"Miss Grenville was very nice, too, mamma, and took great notice of dear little Charlie, and played at cat's with him," said Rose.
"I did not think so much of her as of the old lady," said Janet. "Did you make out what her name was, mamma?"
"Lady Sarah Mortimer, my dear. She is aunt to the two sisters, who are twins, and she to have had of Lady Chester. Miss Grenville with the other guardian."
"I cannot think how she comes to know so much about schools," said Janet, who had herself in that line. "She to go to our every day, and says Mr. Greydon thinks this, and Mr. Greydon me to do that; and it he called at Pleasance again to-day. Very odd, he speaks when I am at the school, and as for calling, he has only called twice since he came to Dulham. However," she added humbly, "it is not very he should like to go to Pleasance. He is so very himself that he naturally other people; and, to be sure, Lady Chester and her sister are very different from any of us. Rose, don't you wish that mamma, and you, and I, were regular ladies?"
"Oh, my dear," Mrs. Hopkinson, "don't talk so. You and Rose may try to be like those two if you please, and a job you will make of it; but as for me into a lady, thank you for nothing. I should like to see John's if I met him in a and a mantle, and a little of over an stick. No, my dears, you must let me be as I am, I'm too old to improve."
"You don't want a of improvement, dear old mother," said her girls, her a good hug. "I was only joking," added Janet.
"And only a very of Miss Grenville," Rose.
Blanche and Aileen the next day to call on Mrs. Hopkinson, to repeat their thanks for her hospitalities, and to see the which Arthur had presented to the Captain.
"Such a sweet inscription," Mrs. Hopkinson said. "'To Captain John Hopkinson, from his and friend, Arthur Templeton.' I don't John would take one thousand for that inkstand. Would your Ladyship allow me to you a picture of John?"
"I should like to see it of all things," said Blanche.
"The only fault of it is that it is not the least like him. John had it done at Macao, by a Chinaman, Chiang Foo, who was to be a good artist: and it was very of John to think of it. But that he is a stout, man with and a face, I don't think Chiang Foo has him off cleverly"; and Mrs. Hopkinson to this by producing the picture of a with half-shut black and high bones, on nothing, and neither the shadow. Blanche not help laughing; but Mrs. Hopkinson looked at it sentimentally, and said, "At all events, it was done from John, and the on his are all right, and look very natural."
"But I am sure it not do him justice."
"No, indeed"; and Mrs. Hopkinson and in her new acquaintances. Willis had called in the morning, and had the history of the day, on which he the comment, that he did not think much of a little and rain. If it had been in Columbia Lodge, he had no that the house would have been down, but he was used to trials, and should have submitted to that.
"I came to tell, Mrs. Hopkinson, that you will have a visit from the Baroness to-day. She me word she was to make a search for this she wants, and she me to her; but if there is a thing in the world that my spirits, it is over a set of empty houses, of and desolation. So I have left a note to say you would go with her, and I shall take myself off to town. The girls can just step to Randall's and a list of the houses he has on hand. Where's Charlie?"
"He's asleep just now."
"Oh! when he wakes, you can give him this toy. I it for him; I saw it in the Strand, and it took my fancy."
It was a little model of a tomb, and when a was touched at the side, a jumped out, a bow, and jumped in again. Willis looked at it with a satisfaction, which was not at all by the positive of his mother- and sisters-in-law to allow Charlie to of it, much less to see it. Willis was of his child, and did not press his on their when he they it might Charlie. In fact, he was to take it home again, for his own diversion.
Lady Chester and Aileen had sat in Mrs. Hopkinson's parlour, when the appeared, and the Baroness and her son were announced.
"Do not say anything about us," Blanche; "we shall ourselves with Charlie"; and Mrs. Hopkinson took the hint, and her attention to the Baroness, who was overflowing with and grandeur.
"That Willis has off to London, and has me to you, Mrs.–Mrs.–"
"Dear Mrs Hopkinson," said Aileen promptly, in her soft voice, "are you sure this is not your chair I have appropriated?"
"To you, Mrs. Hopkinson," the Baroness, the Aileen; "He says you and your girls–where are they, by the bye?–will help me in this difficult of a villa. I am I am very particular, I am so spoiled. Now you, with this dear, tidy little cottage, can't what my are, what with housekeeper's room, and the Baron's billiards, and Moses' smoking, and my own of apartments–a cottage, though I am sure I you, would not us."
"Here is a list my girls have from the house agent's; there are not many houses just now; Acacia Place is one of the best, Baroness."
"It citizenish," said that lady, who had passed all her early life in the very of that city; "but to be sure," she added, with an air of thought, "I can the name."
"I always Ivy Cottage as I pass it," said Blanche, trying to be to Mrs. Hopkinson's friend, "and I see a up there."
"A is out of the question for me," said the Baroness loftily, to these people. "So, Mrs. Hopkinson, we will go on with our business; Bellevue–that as though it might do."
"The house is tolerable, but it is at the of High Street, and you can see neither the river the common. Marble Hall, next to Columbia, is the one I should recommend."
"And a we should be in," said Baron Moses, confidentially, to the two sisters, had a great on him. "As the belle-mère, the mother-in-law," he condescendingly, "is with my mamma, and can' t hear, I think I may to say that Mr. Willis is about the coach I to drive."
"Mr. Willis is my papa, and not keep a coach," said Charlie, who was on Aileen's knee, "so it not go slow."
"Capital! capital!" said Moses, with an laugh. "Very true, my little man, terrible! It was the Miss Hopkinsons that I met at dinner at Columbia, not you ladies, I think?"
"No," said Blanche, demurely, "we have had the of with Mr. Willis."
"Honour you may well call it, not pleasure; but my mother, who is entichée du Willis, taken with him, means to him, and make him give dinners. I I am speaking to of Dulham, and I we may have the of meeting at the of the égayant Willis."
"I Mr. Willis will ask us," said Aileen, trying to look pensive.
"Oh! but he shall. I exclusiveness, it's in London; but in the country, where are scarce, it is insufferable!"
"I am sorry to you, Moses," said the Baroness, "but the Baron will be if I keep the standing; I wish your father would not give such prices for my horses. I am sure, Mrs. Hopkinson, your friends will you if I take you away, but I am a perfect child in matters, and your will be invaluable. Gunnersbury is my idéal of a villa, but that, of course, I cannot to here; so we will just look at Marble Hall. I wish I have had Pleasance."
Blanche and Aileen rose to depart.
"Yes, Pleasance is a stylish-looking concern," said Baron Moses, "though I only know it from the river. A spot for picnics."
"Ah," said the Baroness, "what the Chesters, would, of course, have me; but, I fear, there is no of their it up. My friend Madame Steinbaum from Berlin–"
"Aileen," said Blanche, and looking annoyed, "we must go, we are Mrs. Hopkinson; and I have not my petition. My sister goes to town to-morrow for a concert. Will you let little Charlie come and pay me a visit?"
"Me will come," said Charlie, "me like you very much–me not like that black man," he added in a whisper, and with a look at Baron Moses.
"Well, then, that is settled. Good-bye, Mrs. Hopkinson," she said to that lady, who her to the door, her the colour of the in her cap, and herself by the and of the Baroness, which upon her and her. With a to the Sampsons, Blanche departed.
"Then we will be off," said the Baroness. "I I did not your friends, Mrs. Hopkinson, they may be; but they to put themselves forward, and I it might lead to their if I settle here, which would me. I am I was farouche," (Mrs. Hopkinson what that was, but settled that it was French for disagreeable,) "but it is a point with me to keep people in their proper places."
"Of course," said Mrs. Hopkinson, who was bewildered, "improper places are things."
"Brava! brava!" said the Baron, his hands, and then that his was to look discomposed, he added graciously, "An excellent joke, but upon my soul, Mrs. Hopkinson, your friend are à croquer, that is to say, creatures. Did not you think so, adorata? "
"Prettyish-looking girls, I believe, but they want style. Who are these the Baron to patronise?"
"I you Lady Chester and her sister at least by sight," said Mrs. Hopkinson, as as her good-humour would allow.
"Lady Chester and her sister!" the Baroness, into her chair, and as as was possible under the amount of she wore. "Good heavens! Mrs. Hopkinson, why did you not name them? why did you not present them to me? I should have been too happy to them every attention for the of our friends the Rothschilds; in fact, I to make Lady Chester's acquaintance, and I was civil, I am afraid."
"That I can answer for," said Baron Moses, who was in with his mother's discomfiture, "civility was not your just at the moment. I," he added consequently, "who can to my very of what goût, paid them every attention. I saw at once that they were il faut." He the of having offered to them an to Willis's board.
"It is most distressing," said the Baroness faintly. "They must think me–me of all people in the world–entirely without du monde. Why upon earth did you not us, Mrs. Hopkinson?"
"Lady Chester I would not," Mrs. Hopkinson.
The Baroness a and that the a on the part of Lady Chester to make her acquaintance, and with her for fashion and people this her extremely. Quite subdued, she set on her in search of a house, almost to put up with the want of a billiard-table, and to that Ivy Cottage would her than Marble Hall. But a red paper in the dining-room of the mansion, with and over-gilt tables, were too much for her: she the room would "light up sweetly." And having Mrs. Hopkinson herself all over the house, to the attics, and the kitchen, and the cupboards, and the pumps, and do all the work of the business, she her with the for her to her way home on foot, but "the Baron was very particular about his horses."
"Well," said Mrs. Hopkinson to the girls, as she was her tea after the of the day, "I'm tired. That Baroness not me my ways, and the she gave herself are not to be told. And there were those ladies, ladies to my mind, looking so and so quiet, and playing so with Charlie, while that great of a woman over them. Don't tell Willis, my dears, but I can't help she is very vulgar: and I see why the Queen don't ask her to her concerts."
