The lady addressed was silent, instinctively waiting till Letty's nerves should have quieted down. She was a Miss Tulloch, a former governess of the Sewells, and now often employed by Letty, when she was in town, as a convenient chaperon. Letty was accustomed to stay with an aunt in Cavendish Square, an old lady who did not go out in the evenings. A chaperon therefore was indispensable, and Maria Tulloch could always be had. She existed somewhere in West Kensington, on an income of seventy pounds a year. Letty took her freely to the opera and the theatre, to concerts and galleries, and occasionally gave her a dress she did not want. Miss Tulloch clung to the connection as her only chance of relief from the boarding-house routine she detested, and was always abjectly ready to do as she was told. She saw nothing she was not meant to see, and she could be shaken off at a moment's notice. For the rest, she came of a stock of gentlefolk; and her invariable black dress, her bits of carefully treasured lace, the weak refinement of her face, and her timid manner did no discredit to the brilliant creature beside her. When the first number of the programme was over, Letty got up once more, opera-glass in hand, to search among the late-comers for her missing lover. She nodded to many acquaintances, but George Tressady was not to be seen; and she sat down finally in no mood either to listen or to enjoy, though the magician of the evening was already at work. "There's something very special, isn't there, you want to see Sir George about to-night?" Tully inquired humbly when the next pause occurred. "Of course there is!" said Letty, crossly. "You do ask such foolish questions, Tully. If I don't see him to-night, he may let that house in Brook Street slip. There are several people after it--the agents told me." "And he thinks it too expensive?" "Only because of _her_. If she makes him pay her that preposterous allowance, of course it will be too expensive. But I don't mean him to pay it." "Lady Tressady is terribly extravagant," murmured Miss Tulloch. "Well, so long as she isn't extravagant with his money--_our_ money--I don't care a rap," said Letty; "only she sha'n't spend all her own and all ours too, which is what she has been doing. When George was away he let her live at Ferth, and spend almost all the income, except five hundred a year that he kept for himself. And _then_ she got so shamefully into debt that he doesn't know when he shall ever clear her. He gave her money at Christmas, and again, I am _sure_, just lately. Well! all I know is that it must be _stopped_. I don't know that I shall be able to do much till I'm married, but I mean to make him take this house." "Is Lady Tressady nice to you? She is in town, isn't she?" "Oh yes! she's in town. Nice?" said Letty, with a little laugh. "She can't bear me, of course; but we're quite civil."