FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   >>   >|  
hought of you and have opened my desk. My spirits have failed me, and I have shut it up again. Am I now in a happier frame of mind? Yes, my good old nurse, I am happier. I have had a letter from Ovid. "He has arrived safely at Quebec, and he is beginning to feel better already, after the voyage. You cannot imagine how beautifully, how tenderly he writes! I am almost reconciled to his absence, when I read his letter. Will that give you some idea of the happiness and the consolation that I owe to this best and dearest of men? "Ah, my old granny, I see you start, and make that favourite mark with your thumb-nail under the word 'consolation'! I hear you say to yourself, 'Is she unhappy in her English home? And is Aunt Gallilee to blame for it?' Yes! it is even so. What I would not for the whole world write to Ovid, I may confess to you. Aunt Gallilee is indeed a hard, hard woman. "Do you remember telling me, in your dear downright way, that Mr. Le Frank looked like a rogue? I don't know whether he is a rogue--but I do know that it is through his conduct that my aunt is offended with me. "It happened three weeks ago. "She sent for me, and said that my education must be completed, and that my music in particular must be attended to. I was quite willing to obey her, and I said so with all needful readiness and respect. She answered that she had already chosen a music-master for me--and then, to my astonishment, she mentioned his name. Mr. Le Frank, who taught her children, was also to teach me! I have plenty of faults, but I really think vanity is not one of them. It is only due to my excellent master in Italy to say, that I am a better pianoforte player than Mr. Le Frank. "I never breathed a word of this, mind, to my aunt. It would have been ungrateful and useless. She knows and cares nothing about music. "So we parted good friends, and she wrote the same evening to engage my master. The next day she got his reply. Mr. Le Frank refused to be my professor of music--and this, after he had himself proposed to teach me, in a letter addressed to my aunt! Being asked for his reasons, he made an excuse. The spare time at his disposal, when he had written, had been since occupied by another pupil. The true reason for his conduct is, that he heard me speak of him--rashly enough, I don't deny it--as an ugly man and a bad player. Miss Minerva sounded him on the subject, at my request, for the purpose of course of making my
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
master
 

letter

 

happier

 

consolation

 

conduct

 
player
 
Gallilee
 

chosen

 
breathed
 

useless


readiness

 

needful

 
respect
 

ungrateful

 
answered
 

excellent

 
faults
 
mentioned
 

plenty

 

children


astonishment

 

taught

 

vanity

 

pianoforte

 

reason

 

rashly

 

written

 

disposal

 

occupied

 

sounded


subject

 
request
 

purpose

 

Minerva

 

evening

 
engage
 

parted

 
friends
 

reasons

 
making

excuse
 

addressed

 
refused
 
professor
 

proposed

 

happiness

 
dearest
 

failed

 
favourite
 

granny