whatever the
young lady may be, I am sure, being recommended by you, she shall have no
reason to complain of my want of attention." After a pause--"Has she any
attendant? because you know I must provide for her proper accommodation
if she is without one."

'"N--no--no, not properly an attendant; the chaplain who lived with her
father is a very good sort of man, and I believe I shall make room for
him in the house."

"'Chaplain, papa? Lord bless us!"

'"Yes, Miss Mannering, chaplain; is there anything very new in that word?
Had we not a chaplain at the Residence, when we were in India?"

'"Yes, papa, but you was a commandant then."

'"So I will be now, Miss Mannering, in my own family at least."

'"Certainly, sir. But will he read us the Church of England service?"

'The apparent simplicity with which I asked this question got the better
of his gravity. "Come, Julia," he said, "you are a sad girl, but I gain
nothing by scolding you. Of these two strangers, the young lady is one
whom you cannot fail, I think, to love; the person whom, for want of a
better term, I called chaplain, is a very worthy, and somewhat ridiculous
personage, who will never find out you laugh at him if you don't laugh
very loud indeed."

'"Dear papa, I am delighted with that part of his character. But pray, is
the house we are going to as pleasantly situated as this?"

'"Not perhaps as much to your taste; there is no lake under the windows,
and you will be under the necessity of having all your music within
doors."

'This last coup de main ended the keen encounter of our wits, for you may
believe, Matilda, it quelled all my courage to reply.

'Yet my spirits, as perhaps will appear too manifest from this dialogue,
have risen insensibly, and, as it were, in spite of myself. Brown alive,
and free, and in England! Embarrassment and anxiety I can and must
endure. We leave this in two days for our new residence. I shall not fail
to let you know what I think of these Scotch inmates, whom I have but too
much reason to believe my father means to quarter in his house as a brace
of honourable spies; a sort of female Rozencrantz and reverend
Guildenstern, one in tartan petticoats, the other in a cassock. What a
contrast to the society I would willingly have secured to myself! I shall
write instantly on my arriving at our new place of abode, and acquaint my
dearest Matilda with the farther fates of--her

'JULIA MANNERING.'

CHAPTER XI