"
Terms were settled; Mary would remain at the schoolhouse, but daily
come to the Pagoda till the removal to London, when her residence was
to begin in earnest.
She took up her line from the first as governess, dropping her
friend's Christian name, and causing her pupils to address herself as
Miss Ogilvie, a formality which was evidently approved by Mrs. Robert
Brownlow, and likewise by Janet.
That young lady was wonderfully improved by prosperity. She had lost
her caustic manner and air of defiance, so that her cleverness and
originality made her amusing instead of disagreeable. She piqued
herself on taking her good fortune sensibly, and, though fully
seventeen, professed not to know or care whether she was out or not,
but threw herself into hard study, with a view to her classes, and
gladly availed herself of Miss Ogilvie's knowledge of foreign
languages.
Mrs. Coffinkey supposed that she would be presented at court with her
dear mamma; but she laughed at courts and ceremonies, and her mother
said that the first presentation in the family would be of Allen's
wife when he was a member of parliament. But Janet was no longer at
war with Kenminster. She laughed good-humouredly, and was not always
struggling for self-assertion, since the humiliations of going about
as the poor, plain cousin of the pretty Miss Brownlow were over.
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