"I once thought of leaving The Chase unknown even to him, but afterwards I felt sorry and ashamed that I could have entertained such an idea for a moment. I am sure I should never have carried it out, though I was going to ask a friend to tell him at once." "And pray may I ask how you obtained this situation?" "By advertising. I had several answers. I needed a recommendation, and the old true friend of my father and mother, Mrs. Caruth, of Fernsclough, gave me one, after having urged me to accept a home with her for an indefinite period. No one else has had a finger in my arrangements." For the first time Mrs. Evans manifested something like interest in Joyce's explanation, and at the mention of Mrs. Caruth's name significant glances were exchanged between her and her second daughter—the one who most resembled her in appearance and disposition. "I should have thought the fact of your being Mr. Evans' niece would have been recommendation enough. Pray what kind of situation have you engaged to fill? I must say, however, that had you wished to be useful to those who have the first claim upon you, I have just indicated a way in which you could be so, and without leaving The Chase." "I am afraid I shall make a poor assistant to your maid, as I have not learned dressmaking," replied Joyce, with quivering lips. "I did not mention my uncle's name or yours in applying for the situation I am engaged to fill. I am going to attend on two little children." "Teach them, I presume you mean?" "Not exactly. I shall try to teach them, but I shall really be their maid. You always told me that I was not fit for a governess, because I was so different from my cousins. A nursery governess's duties would take in too much, so I resolved to be 'only a servant.'" Mrs. Evans' voice rose to a positive shriek as she replied— "I am thankful, very thankful, you are no relative of mine, and that though you are my husband's niece you do not bear the same surname. I wash my hands of you!" And with a look of combined anger and contempt, Mrs. Evans swept from the room. She was not wholly sorry in thinking of the decisive step Joyce had taken. It would give her a good excuse for severing all connection with so undesirable a relative. But there was one drawback to her self-gratulation. If any of her fashionable neighbours were to hear that Mr. Evans' niece had taken such a situation, it would be too dreadful. They would not, perhaps, draw so nice a distinction as she had done, and despite the fact that the connection was only by marriage, Joyce might be regarded as her relative also. There was no getting over the fact that she was first cousin to Adelaide and Augusta. "If that girl's surname had been the same as ours, I would have taken steps to assume a different one, at whatever cost." "Would you have had us called by your maiden name of Smittles?" asked Augusta, who had followed her mother from the morning room. "I like Evans much better."