"Certainly, here; father, daughter, and servants; I dare say I omitted
to speak of the servants in my letters, too; but a poor fellow who has
a great deal to do, cannot think of everything in a minute. Major
Merton has a touch of the liver complaint; and it would not do to
leave him in a warm climate. So, no other chance offering, he is
proceeding to England, by the way of America."
"And how long had you these people on board your ship, Miles?" Grace
asked, a little gravely.
"Actually on board, with myself, about nine months, I should think;
but including the time in London, at Canton, and on the island, I
should call our acquaintance one of rather more than a year's
standing."
"Long enough, certainly, to make a young lady sufficiently obvious to
a young gentleman's memory, not to be forgotten in his letters."
After this pointed speech, there was a silence, which Mr. Hardinge
broke by some questions about the passage home from Canton. As it was
getting cool on the Battery, however, we all moved away, proceeding to
Mrs. Bradfort's. This lady, as I afterwards discovered, was much
attached to Lucy, and had insisted on giving her these opportunities
of seeing the world. She was quite at her ease in her circumstances,
and belonged to a circle a good deal superior to that into which Grace
and myself could have claimed admission, in right of our own social
position.
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