“Frances Howard.”
“My aunt,” exclaimed Howard.
“I’ll run and tell her; I’ll run and bring her here, this instant!” said Oliver. But Mr. Russell caught hold of him, and detained him, whilst they further questioned the woman. Her answers were perfectly consistent and satisfactory. She said, that her mistress’s estate in Jamaica had been sold just before she left the island; that some of the old slaves had been set at liberty, by orders, which came, she understood, in her mistress’s last letter; and that, amongst the rest, she had been freed: that she had heard say that her good mistress had desired the agent to give her also some little provision ground, upon the plantation, but that this had never been done; and that she had sold all the clothes and little things she possessed, to raise money to pay for her passage to England, hoping to find her mistress in London. She added, that the agent had given her a direction to her mistress; but that she had, in vain, applied at at the house, and at every house in the same street. “Show us the direction, if you have it,” said Mr. Russell. The woman said she had kept it very carefully; but now it was almost worn out. The direction was, however, still legible upon the ragged bit of paper which she produced—To Mrs. Frances Howard, Portman Square, London. The instant Mr. Russell was satisfied, he was as expeditious as Oliver himself; they all three went home immediately to Mrs. Howard: she had, some time before, been confined to her room by a severe toothache.
“You promised me, aunt,” said her nephew, “that as soon as you were well enough, you would go to old Paul’s with us, to see our poor woman; can you go this evening?”
“Oh do! do, pray; I’m sure you won’t catch cold,” said Oliver; “for we have a very particular reason for wishing you to go.”
“There is a sedan chair at the door,” said Mr. Russell, “if you are afraid, madam, of catching cold.”
“I am not rich enough to go out in sedan chairs,” interrupted Mrs. Howard, “nor prudent enough, I am afraid, to stay at home.”
“Oh! thank you,” said Oliver, who had her clogs ready in his hands; “now you’ll see something that will surprise you.”
“Then take care you don’t tell me what it is, before I see it,” said Mrs. Howard.
Oliver, with some difficulty, held his tongue during the walk, and contented himself with working off his superfluous animation, by jumping over every obstacle in his way.