courteously.

Mrs Blimber replied, with a sweet smile and a shake of her sky-blue cap,
that if Sir Barnet could have made her known to Cicero, she would have
troubled him; but such an introduction not being feasible, and she
already enjoying the friendship of himself and his amiable lady, and
possessing with the Doctor her husband their joint confidence in regard
to their dear son--here young Barnet was observed to curl his nose--she
asked no more.

Sir Barnet was fain, under these circumstances, to content himself for
the time with the company assembled. Florence was glad of that; for she
had a study to pursue among them, and it lay too near her heart, and was
too precious and momentous, to yield to any other interest.

There were some children staying in the house. Children who were as
frank and happy with fathers and with mothers as those rosy faces
opposite home. Children who had no restraint upon their love, and freely
showed it. Florence sought to learn their secret; sought to find out
what it was she had missed; what simple art they knew, and she knew not;
how she could be taught by them to show her father that she loved him,
and to win his love again.

Many a day did Florence thoughtfully observe these children. On many
a bright morning did she leave her bed when the glorious sun rose, and
walking up and down upon the river's bank' before anyone in the house
was stirring, look up at the windows of their rooms, and think of them,
asleep, so gently tended and affectionately thought of. Florence would
feel more lonely then, than in the great house all alone; and would
think sometimes that she was better there than here, and that there was
greater peace in hiding herself than in mingling with others of her age,
and finding how unlike them all she was. But attentive to her study,
though it touched her to the quick at every little leaf she turned in
the hard book, Florence remained among them, and tried with patient
hope, to gain the knowledge that she wearied for.

Ah! how to gain it! how to know the charm in its beginning! There were
daughters here, who rose up in the morning, and lay down to rest at
night, possessed of fathers' hearts already. They had no repulse to
overcome, no coldness to dread, no frown to smooth away. As the morning
advanced, and the windows opened one by one, and the dew began to dry
upon the flowers and and youthful feet began to move upon the lawn,
Florence, glancing round at the bright