There was something so sympathetic, so appreciative, in the sound of Grace’s voice, that it impelled people to play havoc with their customary reservations in talking to her. “It is tender and kind of you to feel that,” said Mrs. Charmond. “Perhaps I have given you the notion that my languor is more than it really is. But this place oppresses me, and I have a plan of going abroad a good deal. I used to go with a relative, but that arrangement has dropped through.” Regarding Grace with a final glance of criticism, she seemed to make up her mind to consider the young girl satisfactory, and continued: “Now I am often impelled to record my impressions of times and places. I have often thought of writing a ‘New Sentimental Journey.’ But I cannot find energy enough to do it alone. When I am at different places in the south of Europe I feel a crowd of ideas and fancies thronging upon me continually, but to unfold writing-materials, take up a cold steel pen, and put these impressions down systematically on cold, smooth paper—that I cannot do. So I have thought that if I always could have somebody at my elbow with whom I am in sympathy, I might dictate any ideas that come into my head. And directly I had made your acquaintance the other day it struck me that you would suit me so well. Would you like to undertake it? You might read to me, too, if desirable. Will you think it over, and ask your parents if they are willing?”
“Oh yes,” said Grace. “I am almost sure they would be very glad.”
“You are so accomplished, I hear; I should be quite honored by such intellectual company.”
Grace, modestly blushing, deprecated any such idea.
“Do you keep up your lucubrations at Little Hintock?”
“Oh no. Lucubrations are not unknown at Little Hintock; but they are not carried on by me.”
“What—another student in that retreat?”
“There is a surgeon lately come, and I have heard that he reads a great deal—I see his light sometimes through the trees late at night.”
“Oh yes—a doctor—I believe I was told of him. It is a strange place for him to settle in.”
“It is a convenient centre for a practice, they say. But he does not confine his studies to medicine, it seems. He investigates theology and metaphysics and all sorts of subjects.”