Thus forbidden to say more, Eliza Hamlyn thought the more, and her thoughts were not pleasant. At one time she had feared her father might promote Kate Dancox to the heirship, and grew to dislike the child accordingly. Latterly, for the same reason, she had disliked Harry Carradyne; hated him, in fact. She herself was the only remaining child of the house, and her son ought to inherit. She stood this evening at the drawing-room window, this and other matters running in her mind. Miss Kate, at the other end of the room, had prevailed on Uncle Harry (as she called him) to play a game at toy ninepins. Or perhaps he had prevailed on her: anything to keep her tolerably quiet. She was in her teens now, but the older she grew the more troublesome she became; and she was remarkably small and childish-looking, so that strangers took her to be several years younger than she really was. "This must be your model governess arriving, Aunt Emma," exclaimed Mrs. Hamlyn, as the fly came up the drive. "I hope it is," said Mrs. Carradyne; and they all looked out. "Oh, yes, that's an Evesham fly--and a ramshackle thing it appears." "I wonder you did not send the carriage to Evesham for her, mother," remarked Harry, picking up some of the nine-pins which Miss Kate had swept off the table with her hand. Mrs. Hamlyn turned round in a blaze of anger. "Send the carriage to Evesham for the governess. What absurd thing will you say next, Harry?" The young man laughed in good humour. "Does it offend one of your prejudices, Eliza?--a thousand pardons, then. But really, nonsense apart, I can't see why the carriage should not have gone for her. We are told she is a gentlewoman. Indeed, I suppose anyone else would not be eligible, as she is to be made one of ourselves." "And think of the nuisance it will be! Do be quiet, Harry! Kate ought to have been sent to school." "But your father would not have her sent, you know, Eliza," spoke Mrs. Carradyne. "Then----" "Miss West, ma'am," interrupted Rimmer, the butler, showing in the traveller. "Dear me, how very young!" was Mrs. Carradyne's first thought. "And what a lovely face!" She came in shyly. In her whole appearance there was a shrinking, timid gentleness, betokening refinement of feeling. A slender, lady-like girl, in a plain, dark travelling-suit and a black bonnet lined and tied with pink, a little lace border shading her nut-brown hair. The bonnets in those days set off a pretty face better than do these modern ones. That's what the Squire tells us. Mrs. Carradyne advanced and shook hands cordially; Eliza bent her head slightly from where she stood; Harry Carradyne stood up, a pleasant welcome in his blue eyes and in his voice, as he laughingly congratulated her upon the ancient Evesham fly not having come to grief en route. Kate Dancox pressed forward. "Are you my new governess?" The young lady smiled and said she believed so. "Aunt Eliza hates governesses; so do I. Do you expect to make me obey you?"