"My dear Charles, you are a silly little boy. After all, what will you do in Germany?"
She lifted me upon her lap. Davy walked up to the book-case.
"I find, Charles, that you must go immediately,—and, indeed, it will be best if you travel with Mr. Santonio. And how could I send you alone, with such an opportunity to be taken care of! Mr. Davy, will you have the kindness to read that letter to my little boy?"
Davy, thus admonished, gathered up the letter now lying open upon the table, and began to read it quite in his class voice, as if we two had been an imposing audience.
Dear Madam,—Although I have not had the pleasure of an introduction to you, I think the certificate of my cognizance by my friend Davy will be sufficient to induce you to allow me to take charge of your son at the end of this week, if he can then be ready, as I must leave England then, and return to Paris by the middle of February. Between this journey and that time I shall be in Germany to attend the examinations of the Cecilia School at Lorbeerstadt.[12] The Cecilia School now is exactly the place for your son, though he is six months too young to be admitted. At the same time, if he is to be admitted at all, he should at once be placed under direct training, and there are out-professors who undertake precisely this responsibility. My own experience proves that anything is better than beginning too late, or beginning too soon to work alone. I have made every inquiry which could be a proviso with you.
"Then here follows what would scarcely interest you," said Davy, breaking off.
"Your friend is quite right, Charles. Now can you say you are sure I may put faith in you?"
"What do you mean, mother? If you mean that I am to practise, indeed I will; I never want to do anything else, and I won't have any money to spend."
Davy came up to us and smiled: "I really think he is safe. You will let him come to me one evening, dear madam?"