He came to see her every evening, and seemed devoted to her:
would sit quietly with her, or walk with her, or take her to a play, or
a music-hall--at her expense.
She now lived in a quiet elysium, with a bright and rapturous dream
of the future; for she saw she had hit on a good vein of business, and
should soon be independent, and able to indulge herself with a husband,
and ask no man's leave.
She sent to Essex for a dairymaid, and set her to churn milk into
butter, coram populo, at a certain hour every morning. This made a new
sensation. At other times the woman was employed to deliver milk and
cream to a few favored customers.
Mrs. Staines dropped in now and then, and chatted with her. Her sweet
face and her naivete won Phoebe's heart; and one day, as happiness is
apt to be communicative, she let out to her, in reply to a feeler or two
as to whether she was quite alone, that she was engaged to be married to
a gentleman. "But he is not rich, ma'am," said Phoebe plaintively; "he
has had trouble: obliged to work for his living, like me; he painted
these pictures, EVERY ONE OF THEM. If it was not making too free, and
you could spare a guinea--he charges no more for the picture, only you
must go to the expense of the frame.
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