“‘I leave all this to you. Our good vicar will be able to assist you.
“‘My son will join his sister at the seaside for the midsummer holidays. Draw on me for the necessary funds.’
“The prospect of any change filled my soul with delightful anticipations.
“It was now the middle of June. By the first of July I was established in delightful lodgings on the King’s Road, facing the sea.
“We had the whole of the first floor, consisting of a suit of eight rooms—drawing room, dining room, schoolroom, bathroom and four bedrooms.
“I was delighted with the gay vision of life and motion all around me; there seemed to be a perpetual gala.
“The splendor of the view from my front windows was not all the splendor of sea and sky; it was fleets of gayly decked craft, of all sizes and shapes, from the queenly yacht to the pretty little rowboats; and the pier, with its bazaars of toys, trinkets and jewelry; the bathing houses, the frolicsome children in the surf or on the sands, the brilliant crowds on the esplanade, the bands of music, the magnificent shops, with displays of sumptuous fabrics and splendid jewels, not to be surpassed in those of Paris or Constantinople.
“In fact, to me, who had never been in a town before—to me, coming from lonely and dreary Weirdwaste—Brighton was a dazzling, bewildering scene of light, life, gayety, splendor and magnificence.
“And if it was all this viewed only from the front windows of my lodgings, what was it, let me ask you, afterward, when my schoolboy brother and his friends came, full of high spirits, to make the most of our opportunities?
“On the second day after our installment at our lodgings we were joined by the French governess who had been engaged for me.