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. She was out at all
kinds of hours, and when you knew that you knew all.
Ernest did not pay much heed to these aspersions of Mrs Baxter's. Mrs
Jupp had got round the greater number of his many blind sides, and had
warned him not to believe Mrs Baxter, whose lip she said was something
awful.
Ernest had heard that women were always jealous of one another, and
certainly these young women were more attractive than Mrs Baxter was, so
jealousy was probably at the bottom of it. If they were maligned there
could be no objection to his making their acquaintance; if not maligned
they had all the more need of his ministrations.
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