Ernest felt that it would
indeed be almost better for him that a millstone should be hanged
about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend
one of the little Holts. However, he would try not to offend them;
perhaps an occasional penny or two might square them. This was as much
as he could do, for he saw that the attempt to be instant out of
season, as well as in season, would, St. Paul's injunction
notwithstanding, end in failure.
Mrs. Baxter gave a very bad account of Miss Emily Snow, who lodged
in the second floor back next to Mr. Holt. Her story was quite
different from that of Mrs. Jupp, the landlady. She would doubtless be
only too glad to receive Ernest's ministrations or those of any
other gentleman, but she was no governess, she was in the ballet at
Drury Lane, and besides this, she was a very bad young woman, and if
Mrs. Baxter was landlady would not be allowed to stay in the house a
single hour, not she indeed.
Miss Maitland in the next room to Mrs. Baxter's own was a quiet
and respectable young woman to all appearance; Mrs. Baxter had never
known of any goings on in that quarter, but, bless you, still waters
run deep, and these girls were all alike, one as bad as the other.
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