He told her, when he gave her her prize Bible on Palm Sunday, that
she had been going on very well, but she must take great care when
removed from those whose influence now guided her, and who could he
have meant but me? And now she is to go on with me always. She will
be quite one of the old sort of faithful servants, who feel that they
owe everything to their masters, and will it not be pleasant to have
so sweet and expressive a face about the house?'
'Do I know her face?' said Claude. 'Oh yes! I do. She has black
eyes, I think, and would be pretty if she did not look pert.'
'You provoking Claude!' cried Lily, 'you are as bad as Alethea, who
never will say that Esther is the best person for us.'
'I was going to inquire for the all-for-love principle,' said Claude,
'but I see it is in full force. And how are the verses, Lily? Have
you made a poem upon Michael Moone, or Mohun, the actor, our uncle,
whom I discovered for you in Pepys's Memoirs?'
'Nonsense,' said Lily; 'but I have been writing something about Sir
Maurice, which you shall hear whenever you are not in this horrid
temper.'
The next afternoon, as soon as luncheon was over, Lily drew Claude
out to his favourite place under the plane-tree, where she proceeded
to inflict her poem upon his patient ears, while he lay flat upon the
grass looking up to the sky; Emily and Jane had promised to join them
there in process of time, and the four younger ones were, as usual,
diverting themselves among the farm buildings at the Old Court.
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