ition of his own case, and
his family might never be a burden on any one.

The income of the school, with their former well-husbanded means, was
affluence for the style to which he aspired; and his grandmother,
though her menus plaisirs had once doubled her present revenue,
regarded it as the same magnificent advance, and was ready to launch
into the extravagance of an additional servant, and of fitting up the
long-disused drawing-room, and the dining-parlour, hitherto called the
school-room, and kicked and hacked by thirty years of boys. She and
Clara would betake themselves to their present little sitting-room, and
make the drawing-room pleasant and beautiful for the bride.

And in what a world of upholstery did not the dear old lady spend the
autumn months! How surpassingly happy was Jane, and how communicative
about Cheveleigh! and how pleased and delighted in little Charlotte's
promotion!

And Charlotte! She ought to have been happy, with her higher wages and
emancipation from the more unpleasant work, with the expectation of one
whom she admired so enthusiastically as Miss Conway, and, above all,
with the long, open-hearted, affectionate letter, which Miss Ponsonby
had put into her hand with so kind a smile. Somehow, it made her do
nothing but cry; she felt unwilling to sit down and answer it; and, as
if it were out of perverseness, when she was in Mrs. Martha's very
house, and when there was so much to be done, she took the most violent
fit of novel-reading that had ever been known; and when engaged in
working or cleaning alone, chanted dismal ballads of the type of
'Alonzo the brave and the fair Imogens,' till Mrs. Martha declared that
she was just as bad as an old dumbledore, and not worth half so much.

One day, however, Miss Ponsonby called her into her room, to tell her
that a parcel was going to Lima, in case she wished to send anything by
it. Miss Ponsonby spoke so kindly, and yet so delicately, and
Charlotte blushed and faltered, and felt that she must write now!

'I have been wishing to tell you, Charlotte,' added Mary, kindly, 'how
much we like Mr. Madison. There were some very undesirable people
among the passengers, who might easily have led him astray; but the
captain and mate both spoke to Lord Ormersfield in the highest terms of
his behaviour. He never missed attending prayers on the Sundays; and,
from all I could see, I do fully believe that he is a sincerely good,
religions man; and,