"
"Indeed!" cried the governess, reddening with suppressed indignation.
"I trust Miss Milford has not found occasion to make any complaint; she
has enjoyed especial privileges under this roof--a separate bed-room,
silver forks and spoons, roast veal or lamb on Sundays, throughout the
summer season--to say nothing of the most unremitting supervision of a
positively maternal character, and I should really consider Miss
Milford wanting in common gratitude if she had complained."
"You are mistaken, my dear madam; Miss Milford has uttered no word of
complaint. On the contrary, I am sure she has been perfectly happy in
your establishment; but changes occur every day, and an important
change will, I trust, speedily occur in my life, and in that of Miss
Milford. When I first proposed bringing her to you, you asked me if she
was a relation; I told you he was distantly related to me. I hope soon
to be able to say that distant relationship has been transformed into a
very near one. I hope soon to call Honoria Milford my wife."
Miss Beaumont's astonishment on hearing this announcement was extreme;
but as surprise was one of the emotions peculiar to the common herd,
the governess did her best to suppress all signs of that feeling. Sir
Oswald told her that, as Miss Milford was an orphan, and without any
near relative, he would wish to take her straight from "The Beeches" to
the church in which he would make her his wife, and he begged Miss
Beaumont to give him her assistance in the arrangement of the wedding.
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