“Oh, Violet has told me all about you. I am quite interested, I assure you. I know you are not just an ordinary nurse, but have taken up the work from terribly good motives. Now I like that; it interests me dreadfully to see people in earnest, and yet I am never in earnest myself.” “I shall find it difficult to believe that, Miss Cheriton.” “Oh, please don’t call me Miss Cheriton; I am Miss Gay to everyone. People never think me quite grown-up, in spite of my nineteen years. Adelaide treats me like a child, and father makes a pet of me. By the bye, you have contrived to offend Adelaide. Now, don’t look shocked—I think you were quite right. Rolf is insufferable; but you see no one has mastered him before.” “I was very sorry to contradict Mrs. Markham, but I am obliged to be so careful of Joyce—she is so nervous and excitable; I should not have liked her to see Rolf in that passion.” “Of course you were quite right; I am glad you acted as you did; but you see Rolf is his mother’s idol—her ‘golden image,’ and she expects us all to bow down to him. Rolf can be a nice little fellow when he is not in his tantrums; but he is fearfully mismanaged, and so he is more of a plague than a pleasure to us.” “What a pity!” I observed; but Gay broke into a laugh at my grave face. “Yes, but it cannot be helped, and his mother will have to answer for it. He will be a horribly disagreeable man when he grows up, as I tell Adelaide when I want to make her cross. Don’t trouble yourself about Rolf, Miss Fenton; we shall all forgive you if you do box his ears.” “But I should not forgive myself,” I returned, smiling; “the blow would do Rolf more harm than good.” But she shrugged her shoulders and changed the subject, chattering to me a little while about the house and the garden, and her several pets, treating me just as though she felt I was a girl of her own age. “It is nice to have someone in the house to whom one can talk,” she said at last, very frankly; “Adelaide is so much older, and our tastes do not agree. Now, though you are so dreadfully sensible and matter-of-fact, I like what I have heard of you from Violet, and I mean to come and talk to you very often. I told Adelaide that it was an awfully plucky thing of you to do; for of course we can see in a moment you have not been used to this sort of thing.” “All dependent positions have their peculiar trials,” I replied. “I am beginning to think that in some ways my lot is superior to many governesses. Perhaps I am more isolated, but I gain largely in independence. I live alone, perhaps, but then no one interferes with me.” “Don’t be too sure of that when Adelaide is in the house.”