I
was likewise bred up in their Church, my mother having obtained the
consent of my father, during a dangerous illness that followed my
birth, but the other children were all brought up as Protestants.
Indeed, no difference was made between Eustace and me when we were at
Walwyn. Our grandmother taught us both alike to make the sign of the
cross, and likewise to say our prayers and the catechism; and oh! we
loved her very much.
Eustace once gave two black eyes to our rude cousin, Harry
Merricourt, for laughing when he said no one was as beautiful as the
Grandmother, and though I am an old woman myself, I think he was
right. She was like a little fairy, upright and trim, with dark
flashing eyes, that never forgot how to laugh, and snowy curls on her
brow.
I believe that the dear old lady made herself ill by nursing us two
children day and night when we had the smallpox. She had a stroke,
and died before my father could be fetched from London; but I knew
nothing of all that; I only grieved, and wondered that she did not
come to me, till at last the maid who was nursing me told me flatly
that the old lady was dead. I think that afterwards we were sent
down to a farmer's house by the sea, to be bathed and made rid of
infection; and that the pleasure of being set free from our sick
chambers and of playing on the shore drove from our minds for the
time our grief for the good grandma, though indeed I dream of her
often still, and of the old rooms and gardens at Walwyn, though I
have never seen them since.
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