From this time, my recovery was rapid. I was soon able to sit up by the window, and then to walk about the room, and at last, I got down-stairs and out of doors. Every one was very kind to me, and T had only one trouble, over which I used to cry in secret sometimes. I had a ravenous appetite, and though I had half a dozen meals a day, they would not give me half as much as I wanted to eat.
[CHAPTER X.]
TO ENGLAND.
AS I said, my strength increased every day, so that I was soon able to walk about the garden and to take some long rides upon my cousin's gentle old pony, accompanied by Andrew and sometimes by Eleanor, to whom I still clung, though I was on the best of terms with the other girls.
We sat together in the brown parlor, as it was called, with our work or our music. Katherine taught me to play the virginals and also the organ, on which she was no contemptible performer. I never saw a girl who could do so many different things so well; but she had some faults, one of which was that she did not know how to help. Whatever was going on, she always wished to take the whole command, whether the scheme was her own or another person's. Paulina could give advice as to one's embroidery, modestly point out what she believed to be improvements, and after all, be content that you should take your own way. But Kate always had some greatly better plan or pattern of her own, and was inclined to be offended, if one did not adopt it.
I observed that the little boys, though they were fond of Katherine, yet came to Paulina with their little manufactures of kites, etc., as well as with their lessons, and to Eleanor with their bruises, cut fingers, and little difficulties of all sorts. In return for their instructions, I taught the girls to do English cut work, to work lace, and to knit, of which accomplishments they were quite ignorant.
Cousin Marianne was in and out, up-stairs and down, looking well to the ways of her household, keeping every part of the family in place and working smoothly, by using oil or a rasp, as the case might require. I never saw any one who better fulfilled the part of the wise woman of King Lemuel, except that she had no husband to be known in the gates (I always wondered what kind of woman King Lemuel married, after all his mother's instructions. I dare say she was some shiftless, helpless beauty, who could not mend her own hose, and did not know wheat from barley).
I must not forget to say that Pierre Le Febre returned to La Manche, having been well rewarded for his great services, which money alone would never pay for. He was not afraid to go back, as he had a plausible story enough to tell of contrary winds and the breaking of his boat, which was indeed a good deal damaged. But it seems he did not find himself comfortable. He fell under suspicion, notwithstanding all his precautions, and he was not well treated by his own family, who never forgave his marrying poor Isabeau.