about them, Bessie: but sit down first, and, Bobby, come and sit on my knee, will you?’ but Bobby preferred sidling over to his mother.
‘You’re not grown so very tall, Miss Jane, nor so very stout,’ continued Mrs Leaven. ‘I daresay they’ve not kept you too well at school: Miss Reed is the head and shoulders taller than you are; and Miss Georgiana would make two of you in breadth.’
‘Georgiana is handsome, I suppose, Bessie?’
‘Very. She went up to London last winter with her mamma, and there everybody admired her, and a young lord fell in love with her: but his relations were against the match; and – what do you think? – he and Miss Georgiana made it up to run away: but they were found out and stopped. It was Miss Reed that found them out; I believe she was envious; and now she and her sister lead a cat-and-dog life together; they are always quarrelling.’
‘Well, and what of John Reed?’
‘Oh, he is not doing so well as his mamma could wish. He went to college, and he got – plucked,6 I think they call it. And then his uncles wanted him to be a barrister, and study the law: but he is such a dissipated young man, they will never make much of him, I think.’
‘What does he look like?’
‘He is very tall. Some people call him a fine-looking young man; but he has such thick lips.’
‘And Mrs Reed?’
‘Missis looks stout and well enough in the face, but I think she’s not quite easy in her mind. Mr John’s conduct does not please her – he spends a deal of money.’
‘Did she send you here, Bessie?’
‘No, indeed; but I have long wanted to see you, and when I heard that there had been a letter from you, and that you were going to another part of the country, I thought I’d just set off, and get a look at you before you were quite out of my reach.’
‘I am afraid you are disappointed in me, Bessie?’ I said this laughing. I perceived that Bessie’s glance, though it expressed regard, did in no shape denote admiration.
‘No, Miss Jane, not exactly. You are genteel enough; you look like a lady, and it is as much as I ever expected of you: you were no beauty as a child.’
I smiled at Bessie’s frank answer; I felt that it was correct, but I confess I was not quite indifferent to its import. At eighteen most people wish to please, and the conviction that they have not an exterior likely to second that desire brings anything but gratification.
‘I daresay you are clever, though,’ continued Bessie, by way of solace. ‘What can you do? Can you play on the piano?’
‘A little.’
There was one in the room; Bessie went and opened it, and then asked me to sit down and to give her a tune. I played a waltz or two, and she was charmed.
‘The Miss Reeds could not play as well!’ said she exultingly. ‘I always said you would surpass them in learning: and can you draw?’
‘That is one of my paintings over the chimney-piece.’ It was a landscape in water colours, of which I had made a present to the superintendent, in acknowledgment of her obliging mediation with the committee on my behalf, and which she had framed and glazed.
‘Well, that is beautiful, Miss Jane! It is as fine a picture as any Miss Reed’s drawing-master could paint, let alone the young ladies themselves, who could not come near it: and have you learnt French?’
‘Yes, Bessie, I can both read it and speak it.’
‘And you can work on muslin and canvas?’
‘I can.’
‘Oh, you are quite a lady, Miss Jane! I knew you would be; you will get on whether your relations notice you or not. There was something I wanted to ask you. Have you ever heard anything from your father’s kinsfolk, the Eyres?’
‘Never in my life.’
‘Well, you know Missis always said they were poor and quite despicable: and they may be poor; but I believe they are as much gentry as the Reeds are; for one day, nearly seven years ago, a Mr Eyre came to Gateshead and wanted to see you. Missis said you was at school fifty miles off: he seemed so much disappointed, for he could not stay; he was going on a voyage to a foreign country, and the ship was to sail from London in a day or two. He looked quite a gentleman, and I