‘Going out as a governess? Look there;’ and she held up her writing.
He groaned, gave himself a slice under each ear, and viciously bit the end of the paper-knife.
‘You are going to recommend me?’ she said, with a coaxing look.
‘You know I think it a monstrous thing.’
‘But you know of a place, and will help me to it!’ cried she, clapping her hands. ‘Dear good Mr. Pendy, always a friend in need!’
‘Well, if you will have it so. It is not so bad as strangers. There’s George’s wife come to town to see a governess for little Sarah, and she won’t do.’
‘Shall I do?’ asked Lucilla, with a droll shake of her sunny hair. ‘Yes. I know you would vouch for me as tutoress to all the Princesses; able to teach the physical sciences, the guitar, and Arabic in three lessons; but if Mrs. Prendergast be the woman I imagine, much she will believe you. Aren’t they inordinately clever?’
‘Little Sarah is—let me see—quite a child. Her father did teach her, but he has less time in his new parish, and they think she ought to have more accomplishment, polish, and such like.’
‘And imagine from the specimen before them that I must be an adept at polishing Prendergasts.’
‘Now, Cilla, do be serious. Tell me if all this meant nothing, and I shall be very glad. If you were in earnest, I could not be so well satisfied to see you anywhere else. You would find Mrs. Prendergast quite a mother to you.’