"
"Well! I've almost as many classes as pupils, and then there are so
many interruptions. The Colonel is always bringing something to be
signed, and then people will come and offer themselves, though I'm
sure I never asked them. Yesterday there was a stupendous butler and
house-steward who could also act as courier, and would do himself the
honour of arranging my household in a truly ducal style. Just as I
got rid of him, came a man with a future history of the landed gentry
in quest of my coat of arms and genealogy, also three wine merchants,
a landscape gardener, and a woman with a pitcher of goldfish. Emma
is so soft she thinks everybody is a gentleman. I am trying to get
the good old man-servant we had in our old home to come and defend
me; not that he is old, for he was a boy whom Joe trained. Oh Mary,
the bewilderment of it!" and she pushed back the little stray curly
rings of hair on her forehead, while a peal at the bell was heard and
a card was brought in. "Oh! Emma! don't bring me any more! Is it a
gentleman?"
"Y-—es, ma'am. Leastways it is a clergyman."
The clergyman turned out to be a Dissenting minister seeking
subscriptions, and he was sent off with a sovereign.
"I know it was very weak," she said; "but it was the only way to stop
his mouth, and I must have time to talk to you, so don't begin your
mission by scolding me.
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