Theodora was satisfied by finding that she had diligently kept
up the Sunday-school teaching of the little Brogden maid; and as to her
household management, Theodora set herself to learn it; and soon began
to theorize and devise grand plans of economy, which she wanted Violet
to put in practice at once, and when told they would not suit Arthur,
complacently answered, 'That would not be her hindrance.'

Violet wrote to John that if he could see Theodora and Percy now, he
would be completely satisfied as to their attachment and chances of
happiness.

CHAPTER 12

I saw her hold Earl Percy at the point
With lustier maintenance than I did look for
Of such an ungrown warrior.

--King Henry IV

As soon as Violet could leave her little boy without anxiety, the two
sisters deposited Charles Layton at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, with
hopes that a few years' training there would enable him to become Miss
Martindale's little page, the grand object of his desires.

Their next and merriest excursion was to Percy's lodgings, where he had
various Greek curiosities which he wished to show them; and
Theodora consented to come with her brother and sister in a simple
straightforward way that Violet admired.

His rooms were over a toy-shop in Piccadilly, in such a roar of sounds
that the ladies exclaimed, and Arthur asked him how much he paid for
noise.

'It is worth having,' said Percy; 'it is cheerful.'

'Do you think so?' exclaimed Violet. 'I think carriages, especially late
at night, make a most dismal dreary sound.'

'They remind me of an essay of Miss Talbot's where she speaks of
her companions hastening home from the feast of empty shells,' said
Theodora.

'Ay! those are your West-end carriages,' said Percy; 'I will allow
them a dreary dissatisfied sound. Now mine are honest, business-like
market-waggons, or hearty tradesfolk coming home in cabs from treating
their children to the play. There is sense in those! I go to sleep
thinking what drops of various natures make up the roar of that great
human cataract, and wake up dreaming of the Rhine falls.

"Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,
And a river flows down the vale of Cheapside."

Eh, Mrs. Martindale?'

Violet, who always received a quotation of Wordsworth as a compliment to
the north, smiled and answered, 'I am afraid with me it would end in,

"The stream will not flow, the hill will not rise."'

'Pish, V