"GERTRUDE BOWERBANK." "_Roaring House_," slowly repeated my _Father_, knocking the Ashes out of his Pipe, when I had read him the greater Part of this Letter. "It must be a very queer Place, I think, that has such a queer Name.... A roaring House!--hang it if I should like to live in it!--A House that roars, or that has been accustomed to roar, very likely in the old Days of the roaring Cavaliers!--A monstrous queer Name indeed!--Aye, aye, many a Hogshead of strong Ale has been swilled in its great, rambling Kitchen by roaring Boys, I warrant ye--A great, rambling, scrambling, shambling House, with Doors and Casements loose on their Hinges, that creak in the Wind, and with loose Tiles on the great gabled Roofs, and Swallows' Nests in the great, windy Chimneys, and creaking Boards in the uneven Floors and rotten old Staircases, and dark Corners, and dark Cup-Boards, and windy Key-Holes and winding Passages. That's my Notion of _Roaring House_." "Is that where _Gatty_ lives?" said _Prudence_ heedlessly. "No, where she was going to drink Tea; with Lantern and Pattens," said my _Father_--"Didn't you hear _Patty_ read? Ha! Time was, I wouldn't have minded being her Foot-Boy." "But, _Patty_," said my dear _Mother_ anxiously, "she does not think you are well, Love. Do you wish to go to _Larkfield_?" "Why, certainly, _Mother_, it would be a great Treat; only I don't see how I could well be spared." "Oh, we can spare you well enough," cries _Prudence_; "you won't be missed!" "Thank you," said I abruptly; and thought I would not go. "We will manage to spare you very well, my dear Love," said my dear _Mother_--"We will contrive so that you shall not be missed." Just the same Thing, only said how differently! I thought I _would_ go. A kind Word spoken in Season, oh! how good is it! In short, I decided to go, for I felt I wanted a Change; and I was hourly in dread of saying in my present irritable State, something to _Prudence_ which I should afterwards be bitterly sorry for. I saw she wanted me to go; I knew she _could_, if she _would_, supply my Place for a little While; and I hoped after a short Absence to return with a new Set of Ideas, and find all Things straight. So I wrote to _Gatty_, to name my Day, and began to pack up. When Mr. _Fenwick_ heard I was going, he looked very much surprised; but said Nothing. I was glad of the one and the other. I liked his being surprised, and I liked his making no common-place Speeches. In the mean Time, he had, I knew, addressed a Letter to Mr. _Caryl_; and I found, rather unexpectedly, he had got an Answer;--in this Way. I had carried up his Chocolate, and found him with his Elbow on the Mantel-Piece, and his Thumb and Fore-Finger pinching his Chin very hard, while he frowned anxiously over a Billet he was reading. "This is very strange,--very provoking!" cried he, looking round to me for Sympathy--"I don't know why I should trouble you to hear about it, Mrs. _Patty_, but I am vexed!"