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self-respecting of any in Europe: since those days I have seen
paysannes and Bauerinnen; and the best of them seemed to me
ignorant, coarse, and besotted, compared with my Morton girls.
'Do you consider you have got your reward for a season of
exertion?' asked Mr. Rivers, when they were gone. 'Does not the
consciousness of having done some real good in your day and generation
give pleasure?'
'Doubtless.'
'And you have only toiled a few months! Would not a life devoted to
the task of regenerating your race be well spent?'
'Yes,' I said; 'but I could not go on for ever so: I want to
enjoy my own faculties as well as to cultivate those of other
people. I must enjoy them now; don't recall either my mind or body
to the school; I am out of it and disposed for full holiday.'
He looked grave. 'What now? What sudden eagerness is this you
evince? What are you going to do?'
'To be active: as active as I can. And first I must beg you to
set Hannah at liberty, and get somebody else to wait on you.'
'Do you want her?'
'Yes, to go with me to Moor House. Diana and Mary will be at home
in a week, and I want to have everything in order against their
arrival.'
'I understand. I thought you were for flying off on some excursion.
It is better so: Hannah shall go with you.'
'Tell her to be ready by to-morrow then; and here is the schoolroom
key: I will give you the key of my cottage in the morning.'
He took it. 'You give it up very gleefully,' said he; 'I don't
quite understand your light-heartedness, because I cannot tell what
employment you propose to yourself as a substitute for the one you are
relinquishing. What aim, what purpose, what ambition in life have
you now?'
'My first aim will be to clean down (do you comprehend the full
force of the expression?)- to clean down Moor House from chamber to
cellar; my next to rub it up with bees-wax, oil, and an indefinite
number of cloths, till it glitters again; my third, to arrange every
chair, table, bed, carpet, with mathematical precision; afterwards I
shall go near to ruin you in coals and peat to keep up good fires in
every room; and lastly, the two days preceding that on which your
sisters are expected will be devoted by Hannah and me to such a
beating of eggs, sorting of currants, grating of spices, compounding
of Christmas cakes, chopping up of materials for mince-pies, and
solemnising of other culinary rites, as words can convey but an
inadequate notion of to the uninitiated like you. My purpose, in
short, is to have all things in an absolutely perfect state of
readiness for Diana and Mary before next Thursday; and my ambition
is to give them a beau-ideal of a welcome when they come.'
St. John smiled slightly: still he was dissatisfied.
'It is all very well for the present,' said he; 'but seriously, I
trust that when the first flush of vivacity is over, you will look a
little higher than domestic endearments and household joys.'