"We shall have to teach them," said Cicely with energy; "I know so well
that this is what it will come to. I don't mean to teach them ourselves,
for it is not much Latin I know, and you none, and I have not a word of
Greek--but they will come upon us, I am quite sure."
"You forget Mrs. St. John," said Mab.
Cicely gave a slight shrug of her shoulders, but beyond that she did not
pursue the subject. Mrs. St. John's name stopped everything; they could
not discuss her, nor express their disapprobation, and therefore they
forbore religiously, though it was sometimes hard work.
"Blandina will think we are late," at last she said, turning round. This
was their name for their former instructress, their present employer.
Mab turned dutifully, obeying her sister's touch, but with a faint
sigh.
"I hope they will be quiet at the Robinsons as we are passing," the girl
said. "What if they are in full swing, with the 'Blue Danube' perhaps! I
hate to go in from a sweet night like this with noisy fiddles echoing
through my head."
Cicely gave a slight squeeze of sympathy to her sister's arm. Do not you
understand the girls, young reader? It was not the "Blue Danube" that
was being played, but the old Lancers, the which to hear is enough to
make wooden legs dance. Cicely and Mab pressed each other's arms, and
glanced up at the window, where dancing shadows and figures were
visible. They sighed, and they went into their garret, avoiding the
tacit disapproval of Miss Blandy's good-night. She did not approve of
twilight walks. Why should they want to go out just then like the
tradespeople, a thing which ladies never did? But if Miss Blandy had
known that the girls were quite saddened by the sound of the music from
the Robinsons', and yet could not sleep for listening to it, I fear she
would have thought them very improper young persons indeed. She had
forgotten how it felt to be eighteen--it was so long ago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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