Please
can't I do nothing for you? Shall I help you undress, or brush your
hair?"
Perhaps she expected a largesse in honour of the occasion, but Aurelia
had spent all her money on Christmas gifts, and had nothing to bestow.
However, she found on the breakfast-table a parcel addressed to Madam
Belamour, containing a purse with a startling amount of golden guineas
in it. She was rather surprised at the title, which was one generally
conferred on dignified matrons whose husbands were below the rank of
knighthood, such as the wives of country squires and of the higher
clergy. The calling her mother Madam Delavie had been treated as an
offence by Lady Belamour; and when the day had gone by, with nothing
else to mark it from others, Aurelia, finding her recluse in what she
mentally called his quiet rational mood, ventured, after thanking him,
modestly to inquire whether that was what she was to be called.
"It is better thus," hes said. "You have every right to the title."
She recollected that he was a baronet's younger son, a distinction in
those days; and that she had been told that his patent of knighthood
had been made out, though he had never been able to appear at court
to receive the accolade, and had never assumed the title; so she only
said "Very well, sir, I merely thought whether my Lady would think
it presuming.
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