Soon after dinner she dismissed him, telling him that she knew he must
be tired, and that she should go soon to bed herself. He kissed her,
and, out of the fulness of his heart, murmured a few grateful words
to her; she laughed and thrust him gently away, telling him, as he
went out, to ring for his man if he wanted him. Comethup was too full
of the joy of those wondrous rooms of his to want a stranger near him
then; he rambled happily about the rooms for some time, looking at the
pictures, and opening the books, and examining everything that was to
be examined. Finally he undressed and got into bed and fell asleep, and
dreamed that Gwilt had turned suddenly into an ogre and swallowed all
his clothes, so that he could not get up, although his aunt was calling
him from the bottom of the stairs, and a perfect army of servants were
lined up and down the staircase, bowing and waiting for him to pass.
He was awakened in the morning by Gwilt, who looked anything but an
ogre, with his fresh, cheerful, smiling face, with the information
that his bath was ready. He was getting a little used by now to this
wondrous change in his fortunes, and to the fact that grown men
and women seemed to take a delight in ministering to the needs of
such a small and insignificant boy as himself. He got through the
day very well, passing through the ordeal of being measured for an
enormous quantity of clothing, which he felt he should never under any
circumstances wear out, and noting with surprise how completely his
aunt seemed to understand exactly what she wanted him to wear, and how
unerringly she knew the texture of cloth and velvet and laces by the
mere touch of those quick fingers of hers.
On this second day there were again no visitors, a fact which Miss
Carlaw explained to Comethup after the servants had been dismissed
and while she was drinking her wine after dinner. "You see, Comethup,
I don't believe in half-measures. I've made up my mind to spring you
on them all at once, as it were, to show you forth in all your glory.
I'm quite sure you're a handsome boy, even as you are in your country
clothes; but I'm going to make you look handsomer yet. By the Lord,
I'll dazzle 'em!"
The clothes began to arrive in an incredibly short space of time, and
in about a week from Comethup's first appearance in London his aunt
informed him one morning that a big dinner party was to be given that
night at which he was to be present. She was evidently very anxious
about the matter--so much so that she communicated some of her anxiety
to him, and it was an exciting day for both of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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