I should be
quite proud of your wishing to see me, my dear. As a professional
Receiver of rents, so very few people DO wish to see me, that the
novelty would be bracing.'
For his ready acquiescence, the grateful Rosa put her hands upon
his shoulders, stood on tiptoe, and instantly kissed him.
'Lord bless me!' cried Mr. Grewgious. 'Thank you, my dear! The
honour is almost equal to the pleasure. Miss Twinkleton, madam, I
have had a most satisfactory conversation with my ward, and I will
now release you from the incumbrance of my presence.'
'Nay, sir,' rejoined Miss Twinkleton, rising with a gracious
condescension: 'say not incumbrance. Not so, by any means. I
cannot permit you to say so.'
'Thank you, madam. I have read in the newspapers,' said Mr.
Grewgious, stammering a little, 'that when a distinguished visitor
(not that I am one: far from it) goes to a school (not that this
is one: far from it), he asks for a holiday, or some sort of
grace. It being now the afternoon in the--College--of which you
are the eminent head, the young ladies might gain nothing, except
in name, by having the rest of the day allowed them. But if there
is any young lady at all under a cloud, might I solicit--'
'Ah, Mr. Grewgious, Mr. Grewgious!' cried Miss Twinkleton, with a
chastely-rallying forefinger. 'O you gentlemen, you gentlemen!
Fie for shame, that you are so hard upon us poor maligned
disciplinarians of our sex, for your sakes! But as Miss Ferdinand
is at present weighed down by an incubus'--Miss Twinkleton might
have said a pen-and-ink-ubus of writing out Monsieur La Fontaine--
'go to her, Rosa my dear, and tell her the penalty is remitted, in
deference to the intercession of your guardian, Mr.
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