One day, he came over to our house on his most excited double shuffle. “My boss has fixed the English lily,” he said. “Out near his farm in the country, is a village where the brown baby will have to go to school bye and bye. He’s offered to build a school-house, if Mrs. Waverlee will teach in it.”
“And will she?” I asked eagerly.
“She’s tickled to death. Says to train children will be just the ticket for her.”
Soon after this, Mrs. Waverlee came back to her apartment in our house. I heard a very indiscreet lady one day ask her if she didn’t dread going back to the rooms where she had heard the news of her husband’s death. Mrs. Waverlee gave the lady a strange smile and said, “He isn’t dead to me. I feel him near me all the time.”
Both Egbert and his mother visited us quite frequently. They both loved the baby, and sometimes the Bonstones came over with little Cyria, and we had quite a party.
Little Cyria was a darling, and she was not at all afraid of dogs. Every fine day her nurse took her, out on the Drive, and she stretched out her little hand to every dog she met. On windy days, and rainy days, the nurses all took their perambulators up to Broadway where it was more sheltered. If you notice the New York babies in the vicinity of the Drive, you will find that they all look very prosperous, for they are kept out-of-doors so much.
Mrs. Bonstone fussed over Cyria, and mistress fussed over George Washington, and the baby-interest drawing the two ladies together so much, threw the two men together.
Both Mr. Bonstone and my dear master were quiet men, disliking society, loving business, and enjoying nothing as much as a long walk together after their day’s work was over.
Mrs. Granton was not strong enough now to go into society, but Mrs. Bonstone was, and one day I heard her husband talking to her very seriously, and telling her that as long as she lived in the city, she ought to keep up a certain amount of social life.
She adored him still, and never hesitated to tell him so, and in the long run, she usually did as he requested.