Subsequent inquiry, however, informed
me that I was in error. It was the eldest of Mr. Lanfray's
daughters, who was on the point of leaving the house to accompany
her husband to India; and it was for her that the portrait had
been ordered as a home remembrance of her best and dearest
friend. Besides these particulars, I discovered that the
governess, though still called "mademoiselle," was an old lady;
that Mr. Lanfray had been introduced to her many years since in
France, after the death of his wife; that she was absolute
mistress in the house; and that her three pupils had always
looked up to her as a second mother, from the time when their
father first placed them under her charge.
These scraps of information made me rather anxious to see
Mademoiselle Clairfait, the governess.
On the day appointed for my attendance at the comfortable country
house of Rockleigh, I was detained on the road, and did not
arrive at my destination until late in the evening. The welcome
accorded to me by Mr. Lanfray gave an earnest of the unvarying
kindness that I was to experience at his hands in after-life. I
was received at once on equal terms, as if I had been a friend of
the family, and was presented the same evening to my host's
daughters. They were not merely three elegant and attractive
young women, but--what means much more than that--three admirable
subjects for pictures, the bride particularly.
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