Come into your room, and let me
talk a little quietly with you." She drew him into his study,
which was near the outer door, and then she took off his coat,
and put his carpet-bag in a corner, and wheeled a chair to the
fire, before she would begin.
"Well, now! to think how often things fall out just as we want
them, Thurstan! Have not you often wondered what was to be done
with Ruth when the time came at which we promised her she should
earn her living? I am sure you have, because I have so often
thought about it myself. And yet I never dared to speak out my
fear because that seemed giving it a shape. And now Mr. Bradshaw
has put all to rights. He invited Mr. Jackson to dinner
yesterday, just as we were going into chapel; and then he turned
to me and asked me if I would come to tea--straight from
afternoon chapel, because Mrs. Bradshaw wanted to speak to me. He
made it very clear I was not to bring Ruth; and, indeed, she was
only too happy to stay at home with baby. And so I went; and Mrs.
Bradshaw took me into her bedroom, and shut the doors, and said
Mr. Bradshaw had told her, that he did not like Jemima being so
much confined with the younger ones while they were at their
lessons, and that he wanted some one above a nurse-maid to sit
with them while their masters were there--some one who would see
about their learning their lessons, and who would walk out with
them; a sort of nursery governess, I think she meant, though she
did not say so; and Mr.
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