I will speak to Wilmet.'
'Perhaps you had better, so that she may have an answer in case she
is attacked.'
Wilmet was aghast at first, but a hint from Alda made her acquiesce,
not with blushing consciousness, but with the perception that the way
of the world was against the retention of the lodger; and sorry as
she was to lose Mr. Audley, her housewifely mind was not consoled,
but distracted, by calculations on the difference of expenditure.
Again she tried to beg herself off from her visit, in the dread that
Felix would go and take some impracticable house in her absence--some
place with thin walls, no cupboards, and no coal-hole; and she was
only pacified by his solemn promise to decide on no house without
her. She went away in an avalanche of kisses and tears, leaving
Geraldine with a basketful of written instructions for every possible
contingency, at which the anxious maiden sat gazing anxiously, trying
to store her mind with its onerous directions.
'Shall I give you a piece of advice, Cherry?' said the Curate, as he
saw the dark eyebrows drawn together.
'Oh, do!' she earnestly said.
'Put all that in the fire!'
'Mr.
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