On the way she and Mr. Cecil
Burleigh followed behind the rest, but they did not speak much, or spoke
only of common things.
The Gardiners had a small house in a street turning up from the Strand,
a confined little house of the ordinary lodging-house sort, with a
handsbreadth of gravel and shrubs in front, and from the sitting-room
window up stairs a side-glance at the sea. From a few words that Mr.
Gardiner dropped, Bessie learned that it was theirs for twelve months,
until the following June; that it was very dear, but the cheapest place
they could get in Ryde fit to put their heads into; also that Ryde was
chosen as their home for a year because it was cheerful for "poor papa."
Here was a family of indigent gentility, servile waiters upon the
accidents of Fortune, unable to work, but not ashamed to beg, as their
friends and kindred to the fourth degree could have plaintively
testified. It was a mystery to common folks how they lived and got
along. They were most agreeable and accomplished people, who knew
everybody and went everywhere. The daughters had taste and beauty. They
visited by turns at great houses, never both leaving their parents at
the same time; they wore pretty, even elegant clothing, and were always
ready to assist at amateur concerts, private theatricals, church
festivals, and other cheerful celebrations. Miss Julia Gardiner's voice
was an acquisition at an evening party; her elder sister's brilliant
touch on the piano was worth an invitation to the most select
entertainment.
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