Miss Mueller was duly grateful,
and owned to a tender longing for the _Heimath_, and declared herself
ready to retire from her post whenever her ladyship pleased.
'I shall go back to Germany directly I leave you, and I shall live and
die there, unless I am wanted by one of my old pupils. But should Lady
Lesbia or Lady Mary need my services for their daughters, in days to
come, they can command me. For no one else will I abandon the
Fatherland.'
The Fraeulein thus easily disposed of, Lady Mary felt that matrimony
would verily mean independence. And yet she was prepared to regard her
husband as her master. She meant to obey him in all meekness and
reverence of spirit.
She spent the rest of the afternoon and the whole of the evening in her
grandmother's sitting-room, dining _tete-a-tete_ with the invalid for
the first time since her illness. Lady Maulevrier talked much of Mary's
future, and of Lesbia's; but it was evident that she was full of
uneasiness upon the latter subject.
'I don't know what Lesbia is going to do with her life,' she said, with
a sigh.
Pages:
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646