Modern Broods | Page 3

sudden parting."
"There will be pain, especially over little Thekla and Polly. But if
George comes home this spring, and I go out to Queensland with him,
perhaps I should have asked you to take this house off my hands. May
be it would be prudent in you to do so even now, considering all things;
only I believe that transplanting would be good for them all."

"I am glad you think so, for I have a perfect longing for that little house
of my own."
"You will be able to give them a superior kind of society to what they
have had access to here. There is a good deal that I should like to talk
over with you before they come in."
"Agatha seems to be in despair at her failure."
"So is all the house, for we were very proud of her, and, of course, we
all thought it a fad of the examiners, but perhaps our headmistress
might not say the same. She is a good, hardworking girl though, and
ambitious, and quite worth further training."
"I am glad of being able to secure it to her at least, and by the time her
course is finished I shall be able to judge about the others."
"You thought of taking them in hand yourself?"
"Certainly; how nice it will be to teach my own kin, and not endless
strangers, lovable as they have been!"
"It will be very good for them all to see something of life and manners
superior to what I can give them here. You will take them into a fresh
sphere, and--as things were--besides that, I could not-- I did not know
whether their lives would not lie among our people here."
"Dear Sophy, don't concern yourself. I am quite certain you would
never let them fall in with anything hurtful."
"Why, no! I hope not; but if I had known what was coming, I don't
think I should have asked you to consent to Vera and Thekla's spending
their holidays at Mr. Waring's country house."
"Very worthy people, you said. I remember Tom Waring, a very nice
boy; and Jessie Dale went to school with us--I liked her. Fancy them
having a country house."
"Waring Grange they call it. He has got on wonderfully as upholsterer,
decorator, and auctioneer. It is a very handsome one, with a garden that
gets the prizes at the horticultural shows. They are thoroughly good
people, but I was afraid afterwards that there had been a good deal of
noisiness among the young folks at Christmas. Hubert Delrio was there,
and I fancy there was some nonsense going on."
"Ah, the Delrios! Are they here?"
"Yes, poor Fred did not make his art succeed when he had a family to
provide for, and he is the head of the Art School here. His son has a
good deal of talent, and very prudently has got taken on by the firm of

Eccles and Co., who do a great deal of architectural decoration. The
boy is doing very well, but there have been giggles and whispers that
make me rejoice that Vera should be out of the neighbourhood."
"Is she not very pretty?"
"You will be very much struck with her, I think; and Paulina is pretty
too, and more thoughtful. She would not go with Thekla, because
Waring Grange is far from church, and she would not disturb her
Christmas and Epiphany. She is the most religious of them all, and puts
me in mind of our old missionary castles in the air."
"Ah, what castles they were! And they seem further off than ever! Or
perhaps you will fulfil them, and go and teach the Australian blacks!"
"A very unpromising field," said Mrs. Best, "though I hear there is a
Sister Angela at the station who does wonders with them. I hear the
quarter striking--they will be back directly."
"Ah! before they come, we ought to talk over means! Something is
owing for these last holidays. Oh! Sophy, I cannot find words to say
how thankful I am to you for having helped me through this time, even
to your own loss! It has made our life possible."
"Indeed, I was most thankful to do all I could for poor Agnes' children;
and though I did not gain by them like my other boarders, I never
LOST, and they have been a great joy to me, yes, and a help, by giving
my house a character."
"When I recollect how utterly crushed down I felt, seven years ago,
when their mother died, and Aunt Magdalen refused help, and how
despairingly I prayed, I feel all the more that there is an answer to even
feeble almost worldly prayer."
"That it could not be when it was that