But they were glad she
wished to go; they liked the feeling that all were of one
household, and that the interests of one were the interests of
all. It produced a consequence, however, which they did not
anticipate. Sally was full of the event which her presence was to
sanction, and, as it were, to redeem from the character of being
utterly schismatic; she spoke about it with an air of patronage
to three or four, and among them to some of the servants at Mr.
Bradshaw's.
Miss Benson was rather surprised to receive a call from Jemima
Bradshaw, on the very morning of the day on which little Leonard
was to be baptized; Miss Bradshaw was rosy and breathless with
eagerness. Although the second in the family, she had been at
school when her younger sisters had been christened, and she was
now come, in the full warmth of a girl's fancy, to ask if she
might be present at the afternoon's service. She had been struck
with Mrs. Denbigh's grace and beauty at the very first sight,
when she had accompanied her mother to call upon the Bensons on
their return from Wales; and had kept up an enthusiastic interest
in the widow only a little older than herself, whose very reserve
and retirement but added to her unconscious power of enchantment.
"Oh, Miss Benson! I never saw a christening; papa says I may go,
if you think Mr. Benson and Mrs. Denbigh would not dislike it;
and I will be quite quiet, and sit up behind the door, or
anywhere; and that sweet little baby! I should so like to see him
christened; is he to be called Leonard, did you say? After Mr.
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