meet me with a smile and kissed me, with nothing in her eyes but affection and acceptance. Oh the joy and relief I felt at that moment!
“This, Hester,” said Mr Jarvis, “is Clara. And this, Clara, is the Little Old Lady I told you of before. If this is a happy home, it is because Dame Durden makes it so.”
He said this out of his love for me, nothing more, and knowing that I almost fear to write it down, in case it should seem like vanity, but it is unlikely, after all, that anyone will ever read these pages but me.
Clara took my hands in hers and led me to the window-seat, and she had such an enchanting way with her that we spent the whole of the rest of the morning sitting there with the sunlight upon her beautiful hair, talking and laughing together. I saw Mr Jarvis look his approval, and knew at once that he had designed we should befriends, and that I should do what I could to make the dear girl comfortable and content with us. In the days and weeks that followed Clara and I became inseparable, and Mr Jarvis was so good as to allow us to move to adjoining rooms on the ground floor, opening onto the garden, where I would walk before breakfast with my darling. I called her so even then, and it is so natural to me now that I cannot think of her in any other way! She would clasp my hand in hers, and tell me I was a dear creature, and her best friend, and we would both look up to where Mr Jarvis stood watching us at the big bay window.
I remember repeating to my Guardian some such charming words of hers, as we sat together one evening—not for my own vainglory—oh no!—but because—well, just because.
“What a weight off my mind it is that she should love me!” I said. “It is so reassuring to know that a beautiful girl like Clara wishes me for her friend! It is such an encouragement to me!”
“And why should you need anyone else’s encouragement?” he asked, taking my chin gently in his hand. “Clara is by no means the only beautiful girl here. Nor even the most beloved.”
I, very much abashed, hardly knew where to look, and when at last I had the courage to glance up, I saw him looking at me with that careful fatherly look of his that I had come to know so well. I took his hand and kissed it, and held it in mine.
In a little while he smiled, and drew one of my pale flaxen curls through his hand.
“So let us hear no more, Hester, about your looks.”
FOUR
A New Lodger
“My journeys into Africa were exclusively devoted to science, and to the study of nature, but I could not help bestowing some attention to the advantages that might be derived from the civilisation of that most fertile portion of the globe. I shall therefore touch here and there upon the practical, as well as upon the scientific, results of my expedition. I may premise, that I had prepared myself for the task I have undertaken by studying natural science under some of the most distinguished professors in several universities, and that from my earliest youth the observation of the phenomena of nature had excited in me the liveliest interest.”
T HE ROOM IS FULL tonight, and the number of portly and be-bearded gentlemen crowding the rows of seats is making up for the rather inadequate fire at the far end. Cigar-smoke is hanging heavily overhead, and it’s obvious that the portly gentlemen are sweating gently under their starch and barber’s cologne. The speaker on the dais at the front is small and lean, with heavy whiskers, thinning hair, and a little beard sharpened to a perfect point. He looks rather like thePrince Consort, and speaks with a very similar accent, though someone better versed in these things than I am would tell you that he is, in fact, Austrian. A former Consul-General, no less, and his presence here, therefore, is something of a coup for this as yet rather minor geographical society, which has only fairly recently acquired another adjective before its name, and has yet to take possession of the large and
“This, Hester,” said Mr Jarvis, “is Clara. And this, Clara, is the Little Old Lady I told you of before. If this is a happy home, it is because Dame Durden makes it so.”
He said this out of his love for me, nothing more, and knowing that I almost fear to write it down, in case it should seem like vanity, but it is unlikely, after all, that anyone will ever read these pages but me.
Clara took my hands in hers and led me to the window-seat, and she had such an enchanting way with her that we spent the whole of the rest of the morning sitting there with the sunlight upon her beautiful hair, talking and laughing together. I saw Mr Jarvis look his approval, and knew at once that he had designed we should befriends, and that I should do what I could to make the dear girl comfortable and content with us. In the days and weeks that followed Clara and I became inseparable, and Mr Jarvis was so good as to allow us to move to adjoining rooms on the ground floor, opening onto the garden, where I would walk before breakfast with my darling. I called her so even then, and it is so natural to me now that I cannot think of her in any other way! She would clasp my hand in hers, and tell me I was a dear creature, and her best friend, and we would both look up to where Mr Jarvis stood watching us at the big bay window.
I remember repeating to my Guardian some such charming words of hers, as we sat together one evening—not for my own vainglory—oh no!—but because—well, just because.
“What a weight off my mind it is that she should love me!” I said. “It is so reassuring to know that a beautiful girl like Clara wishes me for her friend! It is such an encouragement to me!”
“And why should you need anyone else’s encouragement?” he asked, taking my chin gently in his hand. “Clara is by no means the only beautiful girl here. Nor even the most beloved.”
I, very much abashed, hardly knew where to look, and when at last I had the courage to glance up, I saw him looking at me with that careful fatherly look of his that I had come to know so well. I took his hand and kissed it, and held it in mine.
In a little while he smiled, and drew one of my pale flaxen curls through his hand.
“So let us hear no more, Hester, about your looks.”
FOUR
A New Lodger
“My journeys into Africa were exclusively devoted to science, and to the study of nature, but I could not help bestowing some attention to the advantages that might be derived from the civilisation of that most fertile portion of the globe. I shall therefore touch here and there upon the practical, as well as upon the scientific, results of my expedition. I may premise, that I had prepared myself for the task I have undertaken by studying natural science under some of the most distinguished professors in several universities, and that from my earliest youth the observation of the phenomena of nature had excited in me the liveliest interest.”
T HE ROOM IS FULL tonight, and the number of portly and be-bearded gentlemen crowding the rows of seats is making up for the rather inadequate fire at the far end. Cigar-smoke is hanging heavily overhead, and it’s obvious that the portly gentlemen are sweating gently under their starch and barber’s cologne. The speaker on the dais at the front is small and lean, with heavy whiskers, thinning hair, and a little beard sharpened to a perfect point. He looks rather like thePrince Consort, and speaks with a very similar accent, though someone better versed in these things than I am would tell you that he is, in fact, Austrian. A former Consul-General, no less, and his presence here, therefore, is something of a coup for this as yet rather minor geographical society, which has only fairly recently acquired another adjective before its name, and has yet to take possession of the large and
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