tain amount of exercise was prescribed for
me, painful although the exertion had become.
She brought a little basket along with her and while the footman was gone
to inquire my lady's wishes (for I don't think that Lady Ludlow expected
Miss Galindo so soon to assume her clerkship; nor, indeed, had Mr. Horner
any work of any kind ready for his new assistant to do), she launched out
into conversation with me.
"It was a sudden summons, my dear! However, as I have often said to
myself, ever since an occasion long ago, if Lady Ludlow ever honours me
by asking for my right hand, I'll cut it off, and wrap the stump up so
tidily she shall never find out it bleeds. But, if I had had a little
more time, I could have mended my pens better. You see, I have had to
sit up pretty late to get these sleeves made"--and she took out of her
basket a pail of brown-holland over-sleeves, very much such as a grocer's
apprentice wears--"and I had only time to make seven or eight pens, out
of some quills Farmer Thomson gave me last autumn. As for ink, I'm
thankful to say, that's always ready; an ounce of steel filings, an ounce
of nut-gall, and a pint of water (tea, if you're extravagant, which,
thank Heaven! I'm not), put all in a bottle, and hang it up behind the
house door, so that the whole gets a good shaking every time you slam it
to--and even if you are in a passion and bang it, as Sally and I often
do, it is all the better for it--and there's my ink ready for use; ready
to write my lady's will with, if need be."
"O, Miss Galindo!" said I, "don't talk so my lady's will! and she not
dead yet."
"And if she were, what would be the use of talking of making her will?
Now, if you were Sally, I should say, 'Answer me that, you goose!' But,
as you're a relation of my lady's, I must be civil, and only say, 'I
can't think how you can talk so like a fool!' To be sure, poor thing,
you're lame!"
I do not know how long she would have gone on; but my lady came in, and
I, released from my duty of entertaining Miss Galindo, made my limping
way into the next room. To tell the truth, I was rather afraid of Miss
Galindo's tongue, for I never knew what she would say next.
After a while my lady came, and began to look in the bureau for
something: and as she looked she said--"I think Mr. Horner must have made
some mistake, when he said he had so much work that he almost required a
clerk, for this morning he cannot find anything for Miss Galin
|