"She wants to. If she does, papa says he shall have some nice young lady to sit with me and teach me. Oh, I do hope she will go with them, and then the house would be rid of her. I say she will: it is too good a chance for her to let slip. Mrs. Smith says she won't: she told Mr. Everty so last night. He wouldn't believe her, and was very cross over it." "Cross over it?" "He said Sophonisba ought not to have gone there at all without consulting him, and that she had not been home once since, and only written him one rubbishing note that had nothing in it; and he asked Mrs. Smith whether she thought that was right." A light flashed over me. "Is Miss Chalk going to marry Mr. Everty?" "I suppose that's what it will come to," answered the curious child. "She has promised to; but promises with her don't go for much when it suits her to break them. Sophonisba put me on my honour not to tell; but now that Mr. Everty has spoken to Mrs. Smith and papa, it is different. I saw it a long while ago; before she went to the Diffords'. I have nothing to do but to sit and watch and think, you see, Johnny Ludlow; and I perceive things quicker than other people." "But--why do you fancy Miss Chalk may break her promise to Mr. Everty?" "If she meant to keep it, why should she be scheming to go away as the Whitneys' governess? I know what it is: Sophonisba does not think Mr. Everty good enough for her, but she would like to keep him waiting on, for fear of not getting anybody better." Anything so shrewd as Mabel Smith's manner in saying this, was never seen. I don't think she was naturally ill-natured, poor thing; but she evidently thought she was being wronged amongst them, and it made her spitefully resentful. "Mr. Everty had better let her go. It is not I that would marry a wife who dyed her hair." "Is Miss Chalk's dyed? I thought it might be the gold dust." "Have you any eyes?" retorted Mabel. "When she was down in the country with you her hair was brown; it's a kind of yellow now. Oh, she knows how to set herself off, I can tell you. Do you happen to remember who was reigning in England when the massacre of St. Bartholomew took place in France?" The change of subject was sudden. I told her it was Queen Elizabeth. "Queen Elizabeth, was it? I'll write it down. Mrs. Smith says I shall have no dessert to-day, if I don't tell her. She puts those questions only to vex me. As if it mattered to anybody. Oh, here's papa!" A little man came in with a bald head and pleasant face. He said he was glad to see me and shook hands. She put out her arms, and he came and kissed her: her eyes followed him everywhere; her cheeks had a sudden colour: it was easy to see that he was her one great joy in life. And the bright colour made her poor thin face look almost charming. "I can't stay a minute, Trottie; going out in a hurry. I think I left my gloves up here." "So you did, papa. There was a tiny hole in the thumb and I mended it for you."