And Helena, with a passionate ‘Psha!’ rushed from the room, drawing on her gloves as she went, to go forth to her afternoon labours at the school. This was in the middle of March, and as she came up the cindery path leading to the little anteroom, which Sebastian and his staff were in the habit of using as an office, he and Miss Blisset sat at the window watching her approach. ‘What a lovely, graceful creature she is!’ said Adrienne, admiringly, as the tall supple figure of the girl came swiftly up the walk. ‘I often wonder how she can be the child of such parents.’ ‘There is some southern impetuousness in her nature,’ he replied, ‘and a capacity for southern rages, too,’ he added, watching her and smiling. ‘Look at her now, Miss Blisset; do you see that frown, and how her eyes are flashing, and her lips set?’ ‘Yes, I do; but that is a very unusual expression with her. I wonder what is the matter with her?’ Here Helena came in, somewhat in the whirlwind style, her tall figure erect--her silken skirts angrily sweeping about her. ‘You look annoyed, Miss Spenceley,’ said Adrienne, looking up from where she sat, composed and cool. ‘Annoyed!’ repeated Helena, whose anger and mortification had been augmenting all the time since she had left home, and whose voice vibrated; ‘they tell me on all sides that my father is the richest man in Thanshope, and that I shall have more money than I know what to do with--some time. Some time, indeed! And I cannot get five pounds now to help people with. I’ve given away all my money. I have just half a crown in the world, and I can’t get any more for a month. Do you call _that_ the proper way to treat a woman who will be responsible for five thousand a year--_some time_? My father said I should. Do you call that the right means to accustom her to the duties of her position?’ She had turned suddenly, and almost fiercely, to Sebastian. ‘Not at all,’ said he at once; perceiving that her lips quivered, and that she was divided between tears of mortification and flames of anger. ‘Not at all; but, my dear Miss Spenceley, so long as we have your services, the money which you do or do not contribute is not of the very least consequence.’ ‘Don’t say that to me!’ she exclaimed, excitedly. ‘What is the use? My services are nothing; I can do nothing.’ ‘Indeed, I don’t know what I should do without you,’ said Adrienne. ‘You can influence those girls and women sometimes, when I can make nothing of them. You can make them laugh heartily, when all my efforts can only extort a solemn stare from them.’ ‘You must not talk of going,’ chimed in Sebastian. ‘It is your countenance alone which reconciles my mother to the undertaking. And if you did not come,’ he added, smiling, ‘I don’t believe Hugo would have anything to say to it; and he is invaluable to me amongst the boys. For heaven’s sake, don’t desert us!’