Underwood had not said, 'No, my dear, Miss
Pearson must have her own choice. It is a great kindness, and must be
accepted as such. I suppose Robina must be the new scholar. My little
pupil will not leave me.'
Geraldine only heard of the alternative, to say, 'I'll be nobody's
pupil but yours, Papa.'
While Robina was proportionably exalted by her preferment, and took
to teasing every one in the house to hear her spelling and her
tables, that she might not fulfil Edgar's prediction by going down to
the bottom of the baby-class; and up and down the stairs she ran,
chanting in a sing-song measure--
'Twenty pence are one and eightpence,
Thirty pence are two and sixpence,'
and so on, till her father said, smiling, 'Compensations again,
Mother: the less you teach them the more they are willing to learn.
The mother shook her head, and said the theory was more comfortable
than safe, and that she did not find Lancelot an instance of it.
But there was a general sense of having earned the holiday, when the
grocery van came to the door, on a morning of glorious sunshine.
Edgar and Alda, true to their promise, had walked on so far ahead as
to avoid being seen in the town in connection with it; and Fulbert
had started with them to exhale his impatience, but then had turned
back half-way, that he might not lose the delicious spectacle of the
packing of the vehicle.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53