"You'll understand, marm," he said, "that my niece will not be in a position to live the sort o' life"--he paused, and looked round the vast room, quite without admiration--"the sort o' life you're livin' here. She couldn't keep up the position." "It would not be for long," said Mrs. Harrington, already weighing an alternative plan. She looked critically at Eve, noting, with the appraising eye of a middle-aged woman of the world, the grace of her straight young form, the unusual beauty of her face. "If you could manage to allow her sufficient to dress suitably for one season, I dare say she would make a suitable marriage." Eve turned on her with a flash of bright dark eyes. "Thank you; I do not want to make a suitable marriage." Captain Bontnor laid his hand on her arm. "My dear," he said, "don't take any heed of her. She doesn't know any better. I have heard tell of such women, but"--he looked round the room--"I did not look to meet with one in a house like this. I did not know they called themselves ladies." Mrs. Harrington gasped. She lived in a world where people think such things as these, but do not say them. Captain Bontnor, on the other hand, had not yet encountered a person of whom he was so much afraid as to conceal a hostile opinion, should he harbour such. He was patting Eve's gloved hand as if she had been physically hurt, and Eve smiled down into his sympathetic old face. It is a singular fact that utter worldliness in a woman seems to hurt women less than it does men. Mrs. Harrington, with frigid dignity, ignored Captain Bontnor, and addressed herself exclusively to Eve. "You must be good enough to remember," she said, "that I can scarcely have other motives than those of kindness." A woman is so conscious of the weak links in her chain of argument, that she usually examines them publicly. "I do remember that," replied Eve, rather softened by the grey loneliness of this woman's life--a loneliness which seemed to be sitting on all the empty chairs--"and I am very grateful to you. I think, perhaps, my uncle misunderstood you. But--" "Yes--but--" "Under the circumstances, I think it will be wiser for me to accept his kind offer, and make my home with him. I hope to be able to find some work which will enable me to--to help somewhat towards the household expenses." Mrs. Harrington shrugged her shoulders. "As you like," she said. "After a few months of a governess's life perhaps you may reconsider your decision. I know--" She was going to say that she knew what it was, but she recollected herself in time. "I know," she said instead, "girls who have lived such lives." With the air of Spain Eve Challoner seemed to have inhaled some of the Spanish pride, which is as a stone wall against which charity and pity may alike beat in vain. From her superior height the girl looked down on the keen-faced little woman. "I am not in a position to choose," she said. "I am prepared for some small hardships."