The scene had a greatness that made it a different affair from
my own scant home, and there immediately appeared at the door,
with a little girl in her hand, a civil person who dropped me as decent
a curtsy as if I had been the mistress or a distinguished visitor.
I had received in Harley Street a narrower notion of the place,
and that, as I recalled it, made me think the proprietor still
more of a gentleman, suggested that what I was to enjoy might be
something beyond his promise.
I had no drop again till the next day, for I was carried
triumphantly through the following hours by my introduction
to the younger of my pupils. The little girl who accompanied
Mrs. Grose appeared to me on the spot a creature so charming
as to make it a great fortune to have to do with her.
She was the most beautiful child I had ever seen, and I afterward
wondered that my employer had not told me more of her.
I slept little that night--I was too much excited;
and this astonished me, too, I recollect, remained with me,
adding to my sense of the liberality with which I was treated.
The large, impressive room, one of the best in the house, the great
state bed, as I almost felt it, the full, figured draperies,
the long glasses in which, for the first time, I could see
myself from head to foot, all struck me--like the extraordinary
charm of my small charge--as so many things thrown in.
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