'
'But what time have you to yourself?'
'Grandmamma does not want me till half-past ten in the morning, except
for a little visit. And she does not mind my writing letters while she
is reading the paper, provided I am ready to answer anything
remarkable. I am quite the family newsmonger! Then there's always from
four to half-past six when I can go out if I like. There's a dear old
governess of ours living not far off, and we have nice little
expeditions together. And you know it is nice to be at the family
headquarters in London, and have every one dropping in.'
'Oh dear! how good you are to like going on like that,' said Gillian,
who had come up while this was passing; 'I should eat my heart out; you
must be made up of contentment.'
Elizabeth held up her hand in warning lest her grandmother should be
wakened, but she laughed and said, 'My brothers would tell you I used
to be Pipy Bet. But that dear old governess. Miss Fosbrook, was the
making of me, and taught me how to be jolly like Mark Tapley among the
rattlesnakes,' she finished, looking drolly up to Gillian.
'And, Gill, you don't know what Bessie has made her companions instead
of the rattlesnakes,' said Lady Merrifield. 'What do you think of
"Kate's Jewel?"'
Gillian's astonishment and rapture actually woke grandmamma; not that
she made much noise, but there was a disturbing force about her
excitement; and the subject had to be abandoned.
As the great secret might be shared with Dolores, though not with the
younger ones, whose discretion could not be depended upon, Gillian
could enter upon it the more freely, though she was rather disappointed
that an author was not such an extraordinary sight to Dolly as to
herself.
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