regarded as a grave and inexcusable offence, not only by my pupils and their mother, but by the very servant who came in breathless haste to call me, exclaiming—"You're to go to the school-room directly, mum—the young ladies is waiting!!"
"Climax of horror! actually waiting for their governess!!!
But this time, I was pretty sure of an hour or two to myself, for Matilda was preparing for a long ride, and Rosalie was dressing for a dinner party at Lady Ashby's: so I took the opportunity of repairing to the widow's cottage, where I found her in some anxiety about her cat, which had been absent all day. I comforted her with as many anecdotes of that animal's roving propensities as I could recollect.
"I'm feared o' th' gamkeepers," said she, "that's all 'at I think on. If th' young gentlemen had been at home, I should a' thought they'd been setting their dogs at her, 'an' worried her, poor thing, as they did many a poor thing's cat; but I haven't that to be feared on now."
Nancy's eyes were better, but still far from well: she had been trying to make a Sunday
