United States or Antigua and Barbuda ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
My daughter is going to have a few friends in for a little music; and we shall both be happy if you will join us. Miss Pimpernell tells me you are very musical." "With great pleasure," I answered, in society's stock phraseology. With the "greatest" pleasure, I might have said, as I could almost have jumped for joy. Just fancy! all that I had longed for was accorded in a moment.
I was quite hopeful as to the result, for my "crammer" again impressed me at the last moment with his entire conviction that I would pass with eclat; while, my good friend the vicar, who had given me the most flaming of testimonials, cheered me up with his cordial wishes for my success, as did also dear little Miss Pimpernell, in her customary impulsive way.
"Oh, thank you, dear Miss Pimpernell! And when will you introduce me to Mrs Clyde?" I asked, thinking it best to "strike the iron" whilst it was "hot." "Come round to-morrow afternoon, Frank," she replied. "She is going to be here by appointment, to see me about some charity in which she is interested; and I'll try and manage it for you then."
He was consequential, dogmatic, and with all the self-asserting priggishness of young Oxford fresh upon him. I confess I was pretty much inclined the same way myself; so, it was but natural that we should disagree: two suns, you know, cannot shine in the same hemisphere. Before I could answer him, Miss Pimpernell hastily interposed.
She came in here to see me to-day, looking very excited and unhappy; and when she had sat down there, in that very chair you are now sitting in," continued Miss Pimpernell, emphasising her words by pointing to the corner I occupied, "and I asked her soothingly what distressed her, she burst into tears, and sobbed as if her little heart would break.
The vicar and Miss Pimpernell also "exceptions," I heard, were just as usual; the former as much liked as ever by rich and poor alike, in the parish; the latter, trotting about still, with her big basket and creature comforts for those whom she spiritually visited.
Such were my reflections now; and, in my abasement and craving for "the one good thing," I thought of the kind vicar. During all the time of my rioting and sin, I had never been near either him or Miss Pimpernell. I would not have profaned the sanctuary of their dwelling with my presence!
"I'll be here, Miss Pimpernell, without fail," I said. "I can never be sufficiently obliged to you, if you do it." "All right, my boy," she said. "I'm sure I shall be very glad to help you in such a trifling matter. But I do not want any of your soft speeches, Frank!
Even as the good old soul spoke, I heard the outer door of the school- room open, and a light footstep along the passage. "There she is now, I do believe!" whispered Miss Pimpernell to me. I could scarcely breathe. I felt that I had at last arrived at the crisis of my life. It must be her, I thought, for my heart palpitated with wild pulsations.
They could not have had an enemy or slanderer in the world. Even Miss Spight had never a word to say against either; that alone spoke volumes for them. "Oh, Frank," exclaimed little Miss Pimpernell as I entered the school- room she always called me by my Christian name, or styled me her "boy," having known me from childhood "Oh, Frank! Here you are at last!
Word Of The Day