"Wouff!" she announced to me--"No anxiety there--an _Anglaise_--not appetizing--not a _fausse maigre_ like us, as thin as a hairpin! Nothing for thou Nicholas--and _Mon Dieu!_--she does the family washing by her hands--I know! mine look like that when I have taken one of my fortnights at the sea!" "You think it is washing?--I was wondering--." "Does she take off her glasses ever, Nicholas?" "No perhaps she has weak light eyes. One never can tell!" Suzette was not yet quite at ease about it all--. I was almost driven to ask Miss Sharp to remove her glasses to reassure her. Women are jealous even of one-legged half blind men! I would like to ask my cook if he has the same trouble--but--Oh! I wish anything mattered! Suzette showed affection for me after this--and even passion! I would be quite good-looking she said--when I should be finished. Glass eyes were so well made now--"and as for legs!--truly my little cabbage, they are as nimble as a goat's!" Of course I felt comforted when she had gone. * * * * * The hot days pass--Miss Sharp has not asked for a holiday, she plods along, we do a great deal of work--and she writes all my letters. And there are days when I know I am going to be busy with my friends, when I tell her she need not come--there was a whole week at the end of July. Her manner never alters, but when Burton attempted to pay her she refused to take the cheque. "I did not earn that" she said. I was angry with Burton because he did not insist. "It was just, Sir Nicholas." "No, it was not, Burton--If she did not work here, she was out of pocket not working anywhere else. You will please add the wretched sum to this week's salary." Burton nodded stubbornly, so I spoke to Miss Sharp myself. "It was my business as to whether I worked or did not work for a week--therefore you are owed payment in any case--that is logic----." A queer red came into her transparent skin, her mouth shut firmly--I knew that I had convinced her, and that yet for some reason she hated having to take the money. She did not even answer, just bowed with that strange aloofness that is not insolent. Her manner is never like a person of the lower classes, trying to show she thinks she is an equal. It has exactly the right note--perfectly respectful as one who is employed, but with the serene unselfconsciousness that only breeding gives. Shades of manner are very interesting to watch. Somehow I _know_ that Miss Sharp, in her washed cotton, with her red little hands, is a lady. I have not seen my dear Duchesse lately--she has been down to one of her country places--where she sends her convalescents, but she is returning soon. She gives me pleasure--. * * * * *