The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 2 of 5)Burney, Fanny
History
The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 2 of 5)
Burney, Fanny
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Refugees -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Refugees -- Fiction; War stories
The music, she answered, she had neither seen nor heard of; the harp,
useless since no longer necessary, she had sent home.
The smiles and sprightly airs of Miss Arbe now instantly vanished, and
were succeeded by undisguised displeasure. To send back, without
consulting her, an instrument that could never have been obtained but
through her recommendation, she called an action the most extraordinary:
she was too much hurried, however, to enter into any discussion; and
must drive home immediately, to enquire what that eternal blunderer, her
cousin Giles, had done, not only with her note, but with her music;
which was of so much consequence, that his whole life could not make her
amends, if it had met with any accident.
Ellis had been so far from purporting to cast herself into any
dependence upon Miss Arbe, that, upon this unjust resentment, she
suffered her to run down stairs, without offering any apology.
Conceiving, however, that the parcel, left by Mr Giles, might possibly
contain the music in question, she followed her with it into the shop;
where she had the mortification of hearing her say, 'Miss Matson, as to
your debts, you must judge for yourself. I can't pretend to be
responsible for the credit of every body that solicits my patronage.'
With the silent displeasure of contempt, Ellis put the parcel into her
hands, and retreated.
'Why how's this? here is my note unopened,' cried Miss Arbe.
Ellis, returning, said that she had not seen any note.
Miss Arbe declared that she had placed it, herself, within the
pack-thread that was tied round the music; but it appeared that Mr Giles
had squeezed it under the brown paper cover, whence it had not been
visible.
'And I wrote it,' cried Miss Arbe, 'purposely that you might be ready
with your answer; and to beg that you would not fail to study the
passages I marked with a pencil, that we might know how to finger them
when we met. However, I shall certainly never trust that monstrous
tiresome creature with another commission.'
She then, accompanied by Miss Bydel, who now entered the shop, and
invited herself to be of the party, followed Ellis up stairs, to read
the note, and talk the subject over.
From this note, Ellis discovered that the plan was entirely altered: the
professor was wholly omitted, and she was placed herself at the head of
a new enterprize. It was to be conducted under the immediate and avowed
patronage of Miss Arbe, upon a scheme of that lady's own suggestion and
arrangement, which had long been projecting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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