"I do not suppose," she
wrote, "that Dr. Skinner will approve very cordially of my attempt
to introduce organ-building into the curriculum of Roughborough, but I
will see what I can do with him, for I have set my heart on owning
an organ built by Ernest's own hands, which he may play on as much
as he likes while it remains in my house and which I will lend him
permanently as soon as he gets one of his own, but which is to be my
property for the present, inasmuch as I mean to pay for it." This
was put in to make it plain to Theobald and Christina that they should
not be out of pocket in the matter.
If Alethea had been as poor as the Misses Allaby, the reader may
guess what Ernest's papa and mamma would have said to this proposal;
but then, if she had been as poor as they, she would never have made
it. They did not like Ernest's getting more and more into his aunt's
good books; still it was perhaps better that he should do so than that
she should be driven back upon the John Pontifexes. The only thing,
said Theobald, which made him hesitate, was that the boy might be
thrown with low associates later on if he were to be encouraged in his
taste for music- a taste which Theobald had always disliked.
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