Phoebe, Junior · Chapter 21 (2/2)

And the news made a considerable flutter in the dim room where Mrs. Tozer sat between the fire and the window, looking out upon the crocuses and regretting the High Street.

“But run and put on another dress, dear. What will they think of you in that everlasting brown frock as you’re so fond of? I’d like them to see as my grandchild could dress as nice as any lady in the land.”

“She’ll not see much finery there,” said Tozer; “they’re as poor as church mice, are them Mays, and never a penny to pay a bill when it’s wanted. I don’t think as Phoebe need mind her dressing to go there.”

“And you’ll send for me if you want me, grandmamma; you will be sure to send?”

But for the brown frock, Mrs. Tozer’s satisfaction would have been unalloyed as she watched her granddaughter walking across the garden.

“She’s at home among the quality, she is,” said the old woman; “maybe more so than she is with you and me; but there ain’t a better girl in all England, and that I’ll say for her, though if she would think a little more about her clothes, as is nat’ral at her age, it would be more pleasing to me.”

“The worst dress as Phoebe has is better than anything belonging to them Mays,” said Tozer.

He did not care for the parson at St. Roque; though he was pleased that his child should be among “the quality.” But it was on that evening that poor old Mrs. Tozer had one of her attacks, and Phoebe had to be summoned back at an early hour. The servant went down with an umbrella and a note, to bring her home; and that trifling incident had its influence upon after affairs, as the reader shall shortly see.