"MAMMA," said Janet, a days after this, "are you going to return Lady Chester's visit?"
"No, my dear, not. It was very proper of her to call, as she herself to us for from that rain, and as for her to little Charlie, it all belief, that loves that child, but she don't want me as a visitor, and a I should be in her drawing-room. Why there's been as many as eight or ten there the last two afternoons, with such people in them. That Duchess's is always there. I should be more out of place there than the Baroness was here."
"That Baroness!" said Rose; "Charles says she is to arrive at Marble Hall to-morrow for good–did not you, Charles?"
"I said she was to stay–good I anticipate, and in this case I evil. She is too to enter into my feelings. Look! what she sent me to-day." And he from an black to the of an four of the blue, with Cupids most on rosebuds. "Tickets for a picnic, the Lord Mayor's barge, and a band, and dancing; in most to my tastes and habits–the Baroness should have a little more tact"; and he almost as he this pointed to his for complete broken-heartedness.
"To be sure, my dear, it was thoughtless; but you see, she meant well, for the are marked at a each. It was a idea; though why she should four to make you do what you don't like, I cannot see."
"Is it possible?" slowly Willis, "can any one be so to the of nature and picnics? Ma'am, I am to pay her for them–that is, if I had them, I should have paid. She is a patroness, and has so many she must of, and she to pass four of them off on me, that's all"; and he replaced them in the black which a note in still mourning, which note to the Baroness a that "Mr. Willis (two under never) joined any (one dash) party of Pleasure, and was (two more dashes) to the of a picnic." He looked at his note with a satisfied air of despondency.
"Miss Janet," said Charlie's nurse, herself, "Lady Chester's and she'd be much if you would step in for a minutes, if not ill-convenient."
"Nothing the with Charlie, is there?" said Janet jumping up. The two on that child.
"Bless your heart, no, Miss! that he's in a way to be spoiled. Missus me to keep him out of the way, as my Lady was so about the garden; but Law! one and then another comes, and the tall with the who is there for wanted to put him and all into a and give him a row; but I he might be like, and I I should be sea sick, so I said, no; and now, Miss, will you come?"
"Must I go, Mamma? That Mrs. Thomson is from the hospital to-day, and she has not a friend a relation in the world, and I promised to go and see her, and with the as to what be done for her."
"Is she a widow?" asked Willis.
"Yes, her husband was drowned, and she met with some accident, and has been in the hospital for three months."
"Well, in of her bereavement, I will give you the price of one of these tickets," said Willis, who was in high good at the notice taken of his child, and with himself for the he had the Baroness. "Yet money is no consolation."
"Oh, is not it?" Janet; "you would not say so, if you saw some of those when they the hospital they have no home to go to. I am sure I am very much to you, Charles, your will be such an to that woman. Mamma, if I have not returned from Pleasance in a of an hour, will you take it to her?" and so saying she departed.
She was into Blanche's boudoir, who for having sent for her, but "We," she said, pointing to a tall distinguished-looking woman, very dressed, who was by her, "are much about two or three in the hospital here, and Mr. Greydon says that you know them all, and can give us more about them than he can."
Janet's with delight. Mr. Greydon's were as as they were delightful, and she felt, too, the possibility of some of her protégées. Mrs. Thomson's case was and relieved, an for a orphan, and "Clara," as the friend was called by Lady Chester, said she had much from the of Miss Hopkinson's in visiting and reading to them, and how they her and her sister sing.
"Oh, do you sing?" Blanche, "I have not a song for ages; you must give me one."
"You would not call mine singing, Lady Chester," said Janet, smiling, "my sister and I have had very little instruction, and have any music; but we have ourselves a and hymns, and some old-fashioned ballads, which our friends, but I if they would else. We moved our into the room when you came here, for our noise should you."
The Dead March in Saul its old on Blanche's conscience, but she that it was played with great expression, and again she Janet to sing, and opened the pianoforte; but Janet said that an was not necessary for the little she do, and that little was not for twice. So without the she Old Robin Grey, in a rich sweet voice that her hearers. She to be the story, than the song, with a of that them; and just as the heroine's was 'like to break,' a from Lady Chester put an end to her griefs, and to Robin's hopes, and Janet's ballad.
"What is the matter, Lady Chester?" she exclaimed.
"Why, your singing, child; it's than the 'mither that did not speak,' for hearts. It is the most thing I heard. Now is it not, Clara?"
But Clara was her and did not answer.
"Dear Miss Hopkinson, what a gift that voice of yours is; it would be so if you would let us come sometimes and you and your sister practise. Is her equal to yours?"
"Rose much than I do," said Janet simply, "and if you think it would you, and are not saying these to me, I am sure we should be to come and sing to you you like. We are dear papa home next month," she added, her with delight, "and he is so of all these old that we are very just now. If you have nothing more to ask about the hospital, Lady Chester, I should like to go there now, to tell Mrs. Thomson and Ellen Smith what will make them so happy; and I will just into the garden, and send little Charlie home: I cannot tell you how much your to our little darling."
"He is a darling," said Blanche.
"And a great of mine," added Clara. "My is at the door, Miss Hopkinson, and I will put you at the hospital; while you send your little nephew home, I will put on my bonnet, and we will meet you in the hall."
"Oh, thank you," said Janet, "then I am sure of being in time for Mrs. Thomson," and she ran stairs.
"Now that is what I call a girl," said the Duchess, "not awkward, and yet not forward; and she is her little life in doing all the good that comes her means. Then her singing! My dear, I am of myself. I to that the Duke was old Robin Grey, and that I must have some Jamie for him. You and Aileen, Blanche, have being fast –"
"Thanks to Aunt Sarah," said Blanche.
"And thanks to your own good and taste; but if you see some of the girls who have been out a year! their manners, the way in which they talk upon which now I should be to to–their careless manners to their mothers, and their self-sufficiency–you would be shocked. That girl is refreshing. I think I shall the Hopkinsons, Blanche."
In the hall, the Duchess Janet, who, at the of the carriage, aware of her companion's rank, and the measure she had taken, in a drive with an unknown friend. She did not know how to address her; had ideas of saying your Grace, which she rejected as plebeian; and then at herself for having to a person were mentioned as the in London. However, as she told Rose afterwards, "the Duchess was not so as Baroness Sampson, and her; and when I have said that, it why I myself talking to her about you, and mamma, and the people; just as I should to any of our own friends; and when we the hospital, I not help her to come in, that she might tell those herself what she had for them. It was so to her talk to them, and then she is able to do so much for them. How it must be to be very rich. And then Mr. Greydon came in," added Janet, blushing, "and do you know she told him of my singing, and he said he had had the good of the Miss Hopkinsons sing, at church, and she said he had then a great to come. She wanted to me home. Again I of the Baroness and her to dear mamma; but of I walking. Mr. Greydon walked part of the way with me." And then there a pause: the was too to be mixed up with subjects; and Mr. Greydon's on the promising crops, and the of in the school, and the of little Charlie, were put up for private rumination. They were too to be to Rose.
