(1866)
The General lived in the grand first floor, and the porter lived in the
cellar. There was a great distance between the two families - the whole of
the ground floor, and the difference in rank; but they lived in the same
house, and both had a view of the street, and of the courtyard. In the
courtyard was a grass-plot, on which grew a blooming acacia tree (when it
was in bloom), and under this tree sat occasionally the finely-dressed nurse,
with the still more finely-dressed child of the General-little Emily. Before
them danced about barefoot the little son of the porter, with his great brown
eyes and dark hair; and the little girl smiled at him, and stretched out her
hands towards him; and when the General saw that from the window, he
would nod his head and cry, “Charming!” The General’s lady (who was so
young that she might very well have been her husband’s daughter from an
early marriage) never came to the window that looked upon the courtyard.
She had given orders, though, that the boy might play his antics to amuse
her child, but must never touch it. The nurse punctually obeyed the gracious
lady’s orders.
The sun shone in upon the people in the grand first floor, and upon the
people in the cellar; the acacia tree was covered with blossoms, and they
fell off, and next year new ones came. The tree bloomed, and the porter’s
little son bloomed too, and looked like a fresh tulip.
The General’s little daughter became delicate and pale, like the leaf of the
acacia blossom. She seldom came down to the tree now, for she took the air
in a carriage. She drove out with her mamma, and then she would always
nod at the porter’s George; yes, she used even to kiss her hand to him, till
her mamma said she was too old to do that now.
One morning George was sent up to carry the General the letters and
newspapers that had been delivered at the porter’s room in the morning. As
