Honora sighed, but playfully said, ‘In which case he would have stayed?’
‘No,’ said the still grave girl, ‘he would have been still less likely to do so.’
‘Ah! the remarks would have been more pointed! But he has brought you at any rate, and that is something! How did he achieve it?’
‘Miss Fennimore is really quite ready to be kind,’ said Phœbe, earnestly, with an air of defence, ‘whenever we have finished all that we have to do.’
‘And when is that?’ asked Honor, smiling.
‘Now for once,’ answered Phœbe, with a bright arch look. ‘Yes, I sometimes can; and so does Bertha when she tries; and, indeed, Miss Charlecote, I do like Miss Fennimore; she never is hard upon poor Maria. No governess we ever had made her cry so seldom.’
Miss Charlecote only said it was a comfort. Within herself she hoped that, for Maria’s peace and that of all concerned, her deficiency might become an acknowledged fact. She saw that the sparing Maria’s tears was such a boon to Phœbe as to make her forgive all overtasking of herself.
‘So you get on better,’ she said.
‘Much better than Robin chooses to believe we do,’ said Phœbe, smiling; ‘perhaps it seemed hard at first, but it is comfortable to be made to do everything thoroughly, and to be shown a better best than we had ever thought of. I think it ought to be a help in doing the duty of all one’s life in a thorough way.’
‘All that thou hast to do,’ said Honor, smiling, ‘the week-day side of the fourth commandment.’