Claude sometimes put in a word, but never as if he cared much about
the matter, and he was not to be persuaded to give any decided answer
as to whether he would accompany the Marquis.
The next morning at breakfast Lord Rotherwood returned to the charge,
but Claude seemed even more inclined to refuse than the day before.
Lilias could not divine what was the matter with him, and lingered
long after her sisters had gone to school, to hear what answer he
would make; and when Mr. Mohun looked at his watch, and asked her if
she knew how late it was, she rose from the breakfast-table with a
sigh, and thought while she was putting on her bonnet how much less
agreeable the school had been since the schism in the parish. And
besides, now that Faith and Esther, and one or two others of her best
scholars, had gone away from school, there seemed to be no one of any
intelligence or knowledge left in the class, except Marianne Weston,
who knew too much for the others, and one or two clever inattentive
little girls: Lily almost disliked teaching them.
Phyllis and Adeline were in Miss Weston's class, and much did they
delight in her teaching. There was a quiet earnestness in her manner
which attracted her pupils, and fixed their attention, so as scarcely
to allow the careless room for irreverence, while mere cleverness
seemed almost to lose its advantage in learning what can only truly
be entered into by those whose conduct agrees with their knowledge.
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