"But that it was
here, if you'll believe me, missie, I was as innocent as the babe
unborn, and so was his Honour, Sir Amyas. Indeed, my Lady gave
him to understand that she had put you to boarding-school with
his little sisters."
"Oh! nurse, that is impossible!"
"Lawk-a-day, missie, there's nothing my Lady wouldn't say to put him
off the scent. Bless you, 'tis not for us servants to talk, or I
could tell you tales! But there, mum's the word, as my Dove says,
or he wouldn't ha' sat on his box these twenty year!"
"My Lady is very kind to me," said Aurelia, with a little assumption
of her father's repressive manner.
"I'm right glad to hear it, Miss Aureely. A sweet lady she can be
when she is in the mood, though nothing like so sweet as his Honour.
'Tis ingrain with him down to the bone, as I may say--and I should
know, having had him from the day he was weaned. To see him come
up to the nussery, and toss about his little brother, would do your
very heart good; and then he sits him down, without a bit of pride,
and will have me tell him all about our journey up to Lunnon, and
the fair, and the play and all; and the same with Dove in the
stables. He would have the whole story, and how we was parted at
Knightsbridge, I never so much as guessing where you was--you that
your sister had given into my care! At last, one day when I was
sitting a darning of stockings in the window at the back, where I
can see out over to the green fields, up his Honour comes, and says
he, with his finger to his lips, 'Set your heart at rest, nurse,
I've found her!' Then he told me how he went down to see his old
uncle.
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