Brownlow had befriended when the
elder was struggling, as a daily governess, to provide home and
education for the younger. Now, the one was a worthy, hard-working
law-copier, the other an artist in a small way, who had
transmogrified her name of Jane into Juanita or Nita, wore a crop,
short petticoats, and was odd. She treated Janet on terms of equal
friendship, and was thus a much more charming companion than Jessie.
They always came into cheap sea-side lodgings in the vacation, but
this year had settled themselves within ten minutes walk of the
Folly, a title which became more and more applicable, in Kenminster
eyes, to the Pagoda, and above all in those of its proper owner.
Mrs. Robert Brownlow, in the calm dignity of the heiress, in a small
way, of a good family, had a bare toleration for professional people,
had regretted the vocation of her brother-in-law, and classed
governesses and artists as "that kind of people," so that Caroline's
association with them seemed to her absolute love of low company.
She would have stirred up her husband to remonstrate, but he had seen
more of the world than she had, and declared that there was no harm
in Caroline's friends. "He had met Mr. Acton in the reading-room,
smoked pipes with him in the garden, and thought him a very nice
fellow; his wife was the daughter of poor Cartwright of the
Artillery, and a sensible ladylike woman as ever he saw.
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