It
might do very well for the first six months--just to let her down gently,
as it were--but from henceforth you must hold the reins yourself, Clary,
and I'll teach you how to drive."
"But, dear Lady Laura, I don't want the trouble and responsibility of
housekeeping. I would much rather leave all that in Sophy's hands,"
protested Clarissa. "You have no idea how clever she is. And I have my own
rooms, and my painting."
"Yes," exclaimed Lady Laura, "and you will mope yourself to death in your
own rooms, with your painting, whenever you have no company in the house.
You are not going to become a cipher, surely, Clarissa! What with Miss
Granger's schools, and Miss Granger's clothing-club, and Miss Granger's
premiums and prizes for this, that, and the other, you stand a fair chance
of sinking into the veriest nobody, or you would, if it were not for your
pretty face. And then you really must have employment for your mind, Clary.
Look at me; see the work I get through."
"But you are a wonder, dear Lady Laura, and I have neither your energy nor
your industry."
Laura Armstrong would not admit this, and held to the idea of putting
Clarissa in the right away.
"Wait till I come to you in the autumn," she said. And in that depression
of spirit which had grown upon her of late, Mrs. Granger found it a hard
thing to say that she should be rejoiced when that time came.
She wanted to get back to Arden Court, and was proud to think of herself as
the mistress of the place she loved so dearly; but it seemed to her that
an existence weighed down at once by the wisdom of Sophia Granger and the
exuberant gaiety of Lady Laura would be barely endurable.
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