Miss
Fosbrook offered to commission her sisters to buy the Prussian blue,
lake, and gamboge in London, and send them in a letter. This was a
new idea to Bessie, and she was only not quite decided between the
certainty that London paints must be better than country ones, and
the desire of the walk to Bonchamp to buy some; but the thought that
the ribbon, after all, might be procured there, satisfied her. The
little doleful maid was changed into an eager, happy, chattering
child, full of intelligence and contrivance, and showing many pretty
fancies, since there was no one to tease her and laugh at her; and
her governess listened kindly and helpfully.
Miss Fosbrook could not help thinking how much happier her little
companion would have been as an only child, or with one sister, and
parents who would have made the most of her love of taste and
refinement, instead of the hearty busy parents, and the rude brothers
and sisters, who held her cheap for being unlike themselves. But
then she bethought her, that perhaps Bessie might have grown up vain
and affected, had all these tastes been petted and fostered, and that
perhaps her little hardships might make her the stronger, steadier,
more useful woman, instead of living in fancies.
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