A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh

Author:Sarah Marsh
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Park Row Books
Published: 2023-11-22T16:22:04+00:00

* * *

I didn’t see Mr. Bell for several weeks, instead collecting the school’s copy-work from Miss Lance since she was taking my lessons again. On one occasion, she paused before handing me a particularly large pile and said: Miss Lark, I think we should pay you something. But I frowned and waved the idea away, taking the papers from her. This was an arrangement I had with Mr. Bell to assist him, not with Miss Lance.

But still I wondered about our lessons. I knew he was busy, but now he couldn’t keep the afternoon lessons as well as the morning ones. I thought of Mabel, and if he made regular trips to the Hubbards’ home, now that her father was his financier. I guessed more pupils were coming to the school, as I was asked for more copies of the exercises each week. In spite of what I told Mr. Bell, it took me late into the evenings to get it all done. I usually sat by myself in the kitchen or parlor to finish it, where the fires were warmest. Little St. Clouds had a few new boarders and Mrs. Baylis remained, but the Day sisters had gone. I was surprised to find I missed their teasing. Soon my visits to the Tanners’ printing shop were the only thing I looked forward to.

One evening there was a letter slipped amongst the papers Miss Lance had given me. I recognized the handwriting immediately. Had Mr. Bell placed it in the middle to conceal it from Miss Lance, or to prevent it falling out and getting lost? I opened it quickly, ignoring some of the Visible Speech papers that slipped to the floor.

Inside was a note which thanked me for the recent copy-work and informed me of a demonstration that he planned to hold at the Institute of Technology. “I shall ask a few of my pupils to give an exhibition of Visible Speech, but I also intend to display some of the apparatus that I have been developing. I would like you to present the Phonoautograph and shall ask you to say a word to show how the instrument works.”

I knew I should be pleased. But doubt kicked me like a boot. He wished me to read only one word of Visible Speech? Would the other pupils be singing and reciting the Bard? Or did he choose me because of my scientific mind, and what he had told me about his inventions? It was an honor, surely, to be linked to his scientific work, rather than the rote learning of Visible Speech. Still, I thought, it is only one single word he wishes me to say. A word!

I turned over the page. “If you agree, please let Miss Lance know that you are happy to attend,” he had written. “I may see you for a lesson before then, but I cannot say when that will be. It is a neck-and-neck race between Mr. Gray and myself, who shall complete our telegraph apparatus first.

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