The Chevalier's daughter

by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

"Perhaps so," said I, with a smile, for I was much amused. "Then you do not give them advice?"

"I, Cousin Vevette?" with an air of great astonishment. "How could I do that? I do not know half as much as they do. Why, what advice could I give those poor women about their households and their children, when I never brought up a child or cooked a dinner in all my life? I do sometimes just hint to them about washing a babe's face clean or mending its hose, but just in a pleasant talking kind of way, you know. And I must say they are usually ready to listen. But I never could go into their houses when they are at meals and remark upon their waste in eating fresh butter, or anything like that. Why, I should not like it myself, would you?"

"Decidedly not!" I answered. "But I think it is pleasant to drop into cottages and talk with the women when they are at leisure, and play with the babes, don't you?"

"Oh, yes, and to make christening frocks for them, and the like. Come, we will go and see the old folks at the almshouses."

We spent three or four weeks very pleasantly at Stanton Court. My lord was fond of music, and took much pleasure in our singing and playing. My mother excused herself from returning visits, as her health was so delicate, but she was always in the parlor of an evening, to help my lady in entertaining her guests. I soon came to enjoy these evenings very much, nor was I at all averse to the attentions I received from my lord's young visitors. I had one letter from Andrew, written from Plymouth before he sailed. He told me he had hoped to bid me farewell in person, but that had been made impossible. His ship was to go up to Chatham, and he would write from thence so soon as he knew his destination; but he believed that he should go to the West and not to the East Indies after all.

I shed many tears over this letter, which was as kind and tender as possible, and as my lord was sending post to London, I answered it with my mother's permission, and sent Andrew a watch-chain which I had learned to make from gold cord. Long afterward I heard that he had written again, but I never received the letter.

My mother concluded her business with my lord, greatly to the satisfaction, and I believe to the advantage of both parties, since the property she took in exchange was more immediately productive, and more convenient for a woman to hold. One morning after a long private conference with our host and hostess, my mother told me that she had made Lord Stanton my guardian in case of her dying before I was settled in life.

"Dear maman, do not speak of dying," said I. "You are looking so well."

"And I am well—better than I ever expected to be," she answered me; "but no one knows what may happen, and I shall not die the sooner for having settled my affairs. My lord and lady are good people, and will do well by you."

I was well content with the arrangement, for I liked both my lord and my lady. The latter was one of the most evenly good women I ever saw. She was not one who ever made great demonstrations of affection even to her own children, but she was almost always the same. As Dinah said, one always knew where to have her.