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All these people came to call as soon as we arrived, and parsons and old maids by the dozen, but grandmamma's exquisite politeness upsets them. I suppose they feel that she considers they are not made of the same flesh and blood as she is, so we never get intimate with anybody whatever places we are in. Hephzibah has a lover.
"Oh, papa," she said, "there's one thing here I don't like at all! Why do you put grandmamma's initials at the end? Why do you tell them to write to grandmamma's house in London?" "My dear! your mother can do nothing in this matter, as you know. Your grandmamma is on the spot; and your grandmamma is the proper person to receive the letters, and to make all the necessary inquires."
This is Grandmamma's last Tuesday, as Lent begins to-morrow, and I believe she would as soon steal a diamond necklace as have an assembly in Lent. I had been walking a great deal, as I have carried my Aunt Kezia these last few days to see all manner of sights, and I was very tired; so I crept into a little corner, and there Ephraim found me.
All that I myself knew was that from his fifteenth year upwards he had been known as an imbecile who went barefooted both in winter and summer, visited convents, gave little images to any one who cared to take them, and spoke meaningless words which some people took for prophecies; that nobody remembered him as being different; that at, rare intervals he used to call at Grandmamma's house; and that by some people he was said to be the outcast son of rich parents and a pure, saintly soul, while others averred that he was a mere peasant and an idler.
I just squeezed grandmamma's hand without speaking, and we turned away. It is true that troubles do not often come alone. That winter was one of the very severe ones I have spoken of, that come now and then in that part of Middleshire.
When they had gone kept behind grandmamma's chair, and so only received a squeeze of the hand from my betrothed grandmamma told me she would be obliged to forego the pleasure of herself taking me to the ball to-night, but the Marquis would accompany me, and Mrs. Gurrage would chaperon me there. So, after all, I am going with Mrs. Gurrage!
Phoebe held it with the strongest faith. "Their ways of thinking, perhaps, and their ways of living, are not those which I have been used to," she said; "but how does that affect me? I am myself whatever happens; even if poor dear grandmamma's habits are not refined, which I suppose is what you mean, mamma, that does not make me unrefined.
I can remember seeing your mother, Milly, when she was about as old as you, cuddled up in a corner of that sofa over there, in 'grandmamma's pocket, as she used to call it, listening with all her ears to great-grandmamma's stories.
Unfortunately, fate, which had separated them five years ago, and afterwards reunited them in Grandmamma's abode, next proceeded to interpose an obstacle between them in the shape of Masha's uncle, our man Nicola, who would not hear of his niece marrying that "uneducated and unbearable fellow," as he called Basil.
The blue mark appeared vividly and suddenly round grandmamma's mouth she shut her eyes for a moment. I rushed to her. "Oh, dear grandmamma," I said, "what can I do?" She drank something out of a glass beside her, and then said, in rather a weak voice: "You were saying you met your kinsman. And what was he like, Ambrosine?"
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