The confirmation suit was ready. The mother had worked it herself; but
the tailor who did repairs had cut them out, and a capital cutter-out he was.
“If he had had a better position, and been able to keep a workshop and
journeymen,” the porter’s wife said, “he might have been a court tailor.”
The clothes were ready, and the candidate for confirmation was ready. On
his confirmation day, George received a great pinchbeck watch from his
godfather, the old iron monger’s shopman, the richest of his godfathers. The
watch was an old and tried servant. It always went too fast, but that is better
than to be lagging behind. That was a costly present. And from the
General’s apartment there arrived a hymn-book bound in morocco, sent by
the little lady to whom George had given pictures. At the beginning of the
book his name was written, and her name, as “his gracious patroness.”
These words had been written at the dictation of the General’s lady, and the
General had read the inscription, and pronounced it “Charming!”
“That is really a great attention from a family of such position,” said the
porter’s wife; and George was sent up stairs to show himself in his
confirmation clothes, with the hymn-book in his hand.
The General’s lady was sitting very much wrapped up, and had the bad
headache she always had when time hung heavy upon her hands. She
looked at George very pleasantly, and wished him all prosperity, and that he
might never have her headache. The General was walking about in his
dressing-gown. He had a cap with a long tassel on his head, and Russian
boots with red tops on his feet. He walked three times up and down the
room, absorbed in his own thoughts and recollections, and then stopped and
said:
“So little George is a confirmed Christian now. Be a good man, and
honor those in authority over you. Some day, when you are an old man, you
can say that the General gave you this precept.”
That was a longer speech than the General was accustomed to make, and
then he went back to his ruminations, and looked very aristocratic. But of
all that George heard and saw up there, little Miss Emily remained most
