‘Quite new.’ Then gravely, like a child pretending to be grown up: ‘I thought perhaps I might sack her. I’m not altogether satisfied with her.’ She seemed to be waiting to be encouraged in her desperate plan. ‘But why, Mariella?’ She hesitated, flushing. ‘Well, she’s so _frightfully_ superior,’ she said at last, looking apologetic, a little sheepish. ‘I do hate bossy people, do you?’ Her eyes sought Judith’s with a flicker of appeal. ‘I should think I do.’ ‘Well, that’s what it is,’ she said with relief. Judith took her arm and patted it, saying laughingly: ‘Mariella, you’re afraid of her, I do believe! You know you’d never _dare_ sack her. Shall I come and do it for you?’ ‘Well’--Mariella dropped her voice and said in an embarrassed confiding way, ‘She simply doesn’t take any notice of me--absolutely none. His own mother! I really sometimes wonder if.... Do you suppose----’ She stopped, and a faint flush suffused her whole face. ‘What, Mariella?’ said Judith softly. ‘Well, I sometimes wonder if Julian could possibly have told her I--I don’t know how to look after him.’ She stooped again over the water, and her curls fell forward, hiding her face. ‘Oh no, Mariella! He couldn’t.... He’d never do a thing like that.’ But was it not more than possible? ‘Well p’raps not.... But he might, you know....’ She picked pebbles out of the water, her face still hidden. ‘He never did think I was much good at looking after Peter. You see, the thing is I ought to be very grateful to him really....’ ‘Why, Mariella?’ asked Judith. To herself she said: ‘In another minute I shall get to know Mariella:’ and she almost held her breath to listen, waiting for the moment of revelation, and fearful lest a word or movement of hers should alarm the speaker, close her lips suddenly, and for ever. ‘Well, he’s very helpful about Peter.’ Still she picked pebbles from the stream and threw them away again. She went on as if with an effort: ‘The thing is, you see, he got that governess for Peter, interviewed her and everything. Isn’t he funny? He said poor old Pinkey--you remember her--wasn’t good for him and he must have somebody more suitable for his nervous temperament. I’m afraid he _has_ got a very nervous temperament. I s’pose it’s being musical.... He took simply terrific trouble to find that governess. I daresay she does manage nervous children well. Peter seems very cheerful with her I must say.... And he doesn’t wake up with one of his screaming fits nearly so often.... So I can’t say anything, can I? Julian always will think he knows best. He always was an awful boss, wasn’t he?’ She raised her face to smile with a suspicion of roguishness. ‘Yes, always, Mariella.’ Judith smiled back, eager to encourage Mariella with a sense of shared amusement. The stratagem was successful. Mariella swam a few strokes to the bank, sat down there, splashing the water with her feet, and said, more cheerfully: ‘Of course it’s very nice he takes such an interest.’