“Quite the contrary, I assure you, Miss Frankland. I have been struck with the admirable groundwork you have established, and especially the advantages you have given him of the knowledge of modern languages. I am so much pleased that I intend to beg of Mrs. Roberts to keep you as the able governess of the girls until they are so much older as to require a little knowledge of the world which a metropolitan ladies’ school is sure to impart.”
All this was said with a certain deference of manner to Miss Frankland, that I felt certain the old gentleman was greatly struck with her person, as well as her system of teaching. But of this it is probable my readers will learn more hereafter.
My mother, hearing of the intention of sending me to some clergyman, immediately suggested that her own brother-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Brownlow, rector of Leeds, in Kent, a retired village close to the castle of that name, would be a suitable person. He was a gentleman who had taken honours at Cambridge, and was in the habit of receiving one, two or even three young gentlemen, but never more, to prepare them for the universities. At that moment she knew by a letter from her sister that he had a vacancy. His name, she said, stood high as an instructor, as Mr. Nixon would find on inquiry; and as Charles had never been away from home, it would be a great satisfaction to her to know that he was under the care of her own sister. Mr. Nixon said he perfectly agreed to her suggestion, provided, as to which he had no doubt, his inquiries justified his sending me there. He left us with a promise of an early decision, and, indeed, before the week had passed we received his full concurrence to my mother’s suggestion. So my aunt was written to, and it being the period of the holidays, Mr. and Mrs. Brownlow were asked to come over and spend a week, and then I could return with them to Kent. We had not seen aunt or uncle since we were little children, and only remembered her as a very tall immense person. The distance had prevented personal intercourse, and we only knew of them by interchanges of hams, Canterbury brawn, and oysters at Christmas time. As they replied by return of post, saying they would be with us in two or three days following their letter, you may be sure Miss Frankland and all of us made the most of what was to be the last of our mutual orgies for the time. No restrictions were put upon us, and every night was dedicated to the god of lust and voluptuousness.