Lotty's new home in Highgate Heath was an ideal little place--for a
London suburb, that is. There was nothing of the romance of the forest
and moor about it, and the gipsy lass may have missed the glamour of the
sea. There was a charming morsel of a garden that now in the sweet
summer days was very pretty, and full of choice flowers. The forest was
represented by two tall trees, which, as London smoke swept over even
Highgate Heath, always wept wet soot after rain, and the ocean was a
great stone saucer in which goldfish swam. But there was the nattiest
morsel of a summer-house imaginable, all surrounded with honeysuckle and
roses.
Chops, senior, was really a quiet, inoffensive, and kind-hearted man,
and his wife the daintiest morsel of a laundry-woman ever seen. Then
Lotty's parlour, as her one room was called, was very tidy, neat, and
clean. Quite a girl's room, in fact, and never lacked flowers in it. It
was
Contrived a double debt to pay:
A bedroom bright at night it was,
A drawing-room by day.
Apart from the fact that Antony, Wallace, and Chops were not here, the
little gipsy lass was happier than ever she had been in her life
before. No tiresome rehearsals, no scoldings when doing her best, no
worry nor care. This cottage gave her perfect rest.
But it must not be supposed that Lotty was going to lead an idle life.
Nothing could have been farther from the child's thoughts. She was
determined to pay her own way--to pave her own way, in fact, and to walk
thereon. Mrs Oak had wanted Lotty to make her house her home as long as
she pleased. But while thanking her and promising to come and see her
often, she could not see her way to accept the kind offer. Her spirit of
independence forbade. She determined to become a teacher of French and
music.
That word 'determined' is a strong one; but London is a stony-hearted
mother even to the very cleverest of girls. Lotty stuck her little card
in the parlour window inviting pupils. But, alas! pupils did not come.
Chops's little sister Mariar was the only one she had at present; and
although the child was clever and smart, and Chops's parents pretended
that the tuition she was receiving was quite enough to pay for Lotty's
board, our Lotty was not of the same opinion.
But she was not the girl to let down her heart. So one evening she took
her violin case and walked quietly out. Quite a mile townwards walked
she, and then in a quiet but genteel street she began to play. For a
time not a soul came near her. Oh! but souls came at last, and perhaps
they were really souls, for Lotty was playing her best selected things,
and it was charming to listen to her. She turned as red as an adjoining
postbox when her first money was pressed into her hand, and was a little
astonished to find it was a crooked sixpence with a hole in it. It came
from a horny hand too. 'That'll change your luck, my love,' said the
sturdy giver, and went trudging off before Lotty could thank him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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