"If you do not press on with your applications, you will be too late:
everybody will be engaged for the election in November. The voting-list
is on my writing-table--the names I know are marked. Go on with the
letters in order, and I will sign them when I return from my drive."
Miss Fairfax's face was so pitiful and inquisitive that the substance of
Lady Latimer's letter was repeated to her. It was to the effect that
Miss Hague's former pupils were of great and wealthy condition for the
most part, and that they ought not to let her appeal to public charity,
but to subscribe a sufficient pension for her amongst themselves; and
out of the respect in which she herself held her, Lady Latimer offered
five pounds annually towards it. "And I think that is right," said
Bessie warmly. "If you were my old governess, Miss Hague, I should be
only too glad to subscribe."
"Well, my dear young lady, I was your father's governess and your
uncles' until they went to a preparatory school for Eton: from
Frederick's being four years old to Geoffry's being ten, I lived at
Abbotsmead," said Miss Hague. "And here is another of my boys," she
added as the door opened and Sir Edward Lucas was announced.
"Then I will do what my father would have done had he been alive," said
Bessie. "Perhaps my uncle Laurence will too."
"What were you saying of me, dear Hoddydoddy?" asked Sir Edward, turning
to the old lady when he had paid his devoirs to the rest.
Pages:
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321