“And let me go with you also,” Leila eagerly said; “for I dare say I could do some good. When we arrived in the cave, I remember I assisted papa to arrange a good deal. I unpacked the canteen, and put out all the cups and saucers, and helped nurse to arrange the pans, and when papa put up the shelves, I put the clothes upon them, and his boots and shoes all in a row; but in this country there is not so much to be done; I sometimes think it is stupid to have so many people making places for every thing, I used to like so much making plans and contrivances.”
“Well,” Matilda said, “if you are both going to be such busy bees, I will go to Alfred for a little; I see him down the middle walk, and we can romp together; for you know this is to be a holiday, mamma said so; so I need not work, unless I like it myself.” She was off in a moment.
“Why,” inquired Leila, as they entered the house together, “would you not give Matilda a proof of why you did not like Lydia?”
“Better not,” Selina answered; “it does not do with Matilda to talk to her too much on subjects she does not like; if I had gone on, in a few minutes more she would have been angry. Did you not observe how her colour was rising?”
“Yes, I did; and I am never very sure when I am talking to Matilda how she is to take it; she gets red very often,—but I need not wonder at that, for it is just the same with me—I am sure to get red very often too.”
“Yes,” Selina answered, “you do; you colour very often, but then it is not with anger.”
“You don’t know, Selina; you think that because you love me; but very often it is with anger,—not so much when papa tells me I am wrong, for he speaks so gently to me, and always seems so sorry himself, that it makes me very grieved, and I always wish to be better, and say to myself, that I will try never to displease him again; but it is quite another thing with Nurse. I often feel my cheeks get as hot as fire when she scolds me; but it is with anger then; for she sometimes teases the very life out of me. Not often though, for I know she loves me; but then she is always saying, ‘Oh! Miss Leila, you are a heartbreak to me; if you would but sit to your work like a rational being,—you are not to trust to Amy mending your things,—you know your papa says you are not. You are far too much taken up with your music and your histories; and what sort of a pocket-hole is that for a young lady to have?’ I am laughing now, Selina, while I am telling it to you; but though sometimes I can bear it pretty well, and try to please her by beginning to mend my pocket-hole as quick as possible, at other times I get quite into a passion, and can’t bear to put in a single stitch; but we must make haste now, or every thing will be put in order, and we shall have no work to do. I like that kind of work very much, don’t you, Selina?”
CHAPTER III.
MATILDA’S idea, that their having a governess was a point determined on, proved more correct than her hasty conclusions generally did. Mr. Howard had been for some time aware that the mode of life which he must pursue in England would prevent him giving that undivided attention to Leila which his island home had afforded him, and which every day was becoming more necessary in the formation of her inquiring mind and impetuous character. He felt that Nurse, with all her fond affection, in her attempts to rule, was only fostering in his child a spirit of opposition and self-will; and that Leila was beginning to think in many things she knew better than Nurse, and that she did right to reject counsel, which, though always well intended, was often not judiciously given. Though resolved not to yield to the feeling, he had been too long accustomed to the exclusive society of his child, not to be aware that there would be many occasions in which the presence of a third person would prove irksome to him, and it was therefore with real gratitude that he listened to Mrs. Stanley’s proposal, that the intended governess should reside under their roof, yet still have the joint charge of the cousins. “The distance was so short,” she observed, “not two miles, it would only be healthful exercise for Leila to walk when the day was fine, and in bad weather she could easily be sent to them in the carriage. She should take care that Leila was always at home to dine with her papa when he was alone, and to read and sing to him in the evenings, as she had been accustomed to do.”
When Mr. Howard sent for Leila next day to communicate this intelligence, she entered his room with an unusually grave expression; the dreaded idea of a governess had been haunting her imagination the whole morning, and gaining strength every minute. She advanced slowly, and taking her papa’s hand in hers, she looked up anxiously into his eyes:—“Is it a governess, papa?” she said, “is it? Oh, tell me quick.”