I should then have them
constantly under my own eye, and I think I could effect some good. We
used to speak of this in the summer; and last night we spoke of it
again."
Lady Augusta flew into an ecstasy as great as her late grief had been.
"Oh, it would be delightful!" she exclaimed. "Such a relief to me! and
I know it would be the making of them. I shall thank you and William
for ever, Constance; and I don't care what I pay you. I'd go without
shoes to pay you liberally."
Constance laughed. "As to payment," she said, "I shall have nothing to
do with that, on my own score, when once I am at Hazledon. Those things
will lie in William's department, not in mine. I question if he will
allow you to pay him anything, Lady Augusta. We did not think of it in
that light, but in the hope that it might benefit Caroline and Fanny."
Lady Augusta turned impulsively to Mrs. Channing. "What good children
God has given you!"
Tears rushed into Mrs. Channing's eyes; she felt the remark in all its
grateful truth. She was spared a reply; she did not like to contrast
them with Lady Augusta's, ever so tacitly, and say they were indeed
good; for Sarah entered, and said another visitor was waiting in the
drawing-room.
As Mr. Channing withdrew, Lady Augusta rose to depart. She took Mrs.
Channing's hand. "How dreadful for you to come home and find one of
your children gone!" she uttered. "How can you bear it and be calm!"
Emotion rose then, and Mrs.
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