Jacques, and across the bridge into that unknown world on
the other side of the Seine. The nurse, who had seen very little of that
quarter of the town, wondered what obscure region she was traversing, and
wondered still more when they alighted at the somewhat shabby-looking
gardens.
"These are the Luxembourg Gardens," said Clarissa. "As you have been to the
Tuileries every day, I thought it would be a change for you to come here."
"Thank you, ma'am," replied Mrs. Brobson, the chief nurse; "but I don't
think as these gardings is anyways equal to the Tooleries--nor to Regent's
Park even. When I were in Paris with Lady Fitz-Lubin we took the children
to the Tooleries or the Bore de Boulong every day--but, law me! the Bore de
Boulong were a poor place in those days to what it is now."
Clarissa took a couple of turns along one of the walks with Mrs. Brobson,
and then, as they were going back towards the gate, she said, as carelessly
as she could manage to say: "There is a person living somewhere near here
whom I want to see, Mrs. Brobson. I'll leave you and baby in the gardens
for half an hour or so, while I go and pay my visit."
Mrs. Brobson stared. It was not an hour in the day when any lady she had
ever served was wont to pay visits; and that Mrs. Granger of Arden Court
should traverse a neighbourhood of narrow streets and tall houses, on foot
and alone, to call upon her acquaintance at eleven o'clock in the morning,
seemed to her altogether inexplicable.
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