| 494 | 495 | 496 | 497 | 498 |
| 1 | 133 | 265 | 398 | 530 |
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Goodness gracious, how pretty Barbara was when she coloured - and
when she trembled, like a little shrinking bird!
'
I am telling you the truth, Barbara, upon my word, but not half so
strong as I could wish,' said Kit. 'When I want you to be pleased to see
Miss Nell, it's only because I like you to be pleased with what pleases
me - that's all. As to her, Barbara, I think I could almost die to do her
service, but you would think so too, if you knew her as I do. I am sure
you would.'
Barbara was touched, and sorry to have appeared indifferent.
'
I have been used, you see,' said Kit, 'to talk and think of her, almost
as if she was an angel. When I look forward to meeting her again, I
think of her smiling as she used to do, and being glad to see me, and
putting out her hand and saying, ‘It's my own old Kit,’ or some such
words as those - like what she used to say. I think of seeing her
happy, and with friends about her, and brought up as she deserves,
and as she ought to be. When I think of myself, it's as her old servant,
and one that loved her dearly, as his kind, good, gentle mistress; and
who would have gone - yes, and still would go - through any harm to
serve her. Once, I couldn't help being afraid that if she came back
with friends about her she might forget, or be ashamed of having
known, a humble lad like me, and so might speak coldly, which would
have cut me, Barbara, deeper than I can tell. But when I came to
think again, I felt sure that I was doing her wrong in this; and so I
went on, as I did at first, hoping to see her once more, just as she
used to be. Hoping this, and remembering what she was, has made
me feel as if I would always try to please her, and always be what I
should like to seem to her if I was still her servant. If I'm the better for
that - and I don't think I'm the worse - I am grateful to her for it, and
love and honour her the more. That's the plain honest truth, dear
Barbara, upon my word it is!'
Little Barbara was not of a wayward or capricious nature, and, being
full of remorse, melted into tears. To what more conversation this
might have led, we need not stop to inquire; for the wheels of the
carriage were heard at that moment, and, being followed by a smart
ring at the garden gate, caused the bustle in the house, which had
laid dormant for a short time, to burst again into tenfold life and
vigour.
Simultaneously with the travelling equipage, arrived Mr Chuckster in
a hackney cab, with certain papers and supplies of money for the
single gentleman, into whose hands he delivered them. This duty
discharged, he subsided into the bosom of the family; and,
entertaining himself with a strolling or peripatetic breakfast, watched,
with genteel indifference, the process of loading the carriage.
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