"Yes. She came here on some excuse after I had promised to go to her, and saw my pretty things, my bits of ivory and silver and lacquer that used to be in our little home at Oodeypore. No matter how poor I was, I would never part with them. She insisted on my bringing them with me to decorate her drawing-room, and now she holds them in default of the warning she says I ought to have given her." "But she can't keep them, surely?" "Oh no! she will give them up. It is only what Miss Warner calls a game of bluff. That good friend was recalled suddenly to America, and since I would not go with her, as she wanted, she put me and my affairs in charge of her betrothed, who is a young solicitor in an old firm in Chancery Lane. He, Mr. Douglas, says that Mrs. Tatlow is only squirming a little before giving up the things. So we shall let her squirm." "And now," Freda said, "let us have some tea, for I seem to have been talking an incredible amount." When she had ordered the tea, I said to her: "Is Aline to hear this, Freda?" "I think not," she said wistfully, "unless you think that I had better own up to everything. But it would only grieve her." "Indeed, I think you are right," I said. "It would nearly break her heart. I think you were cruel to us too, Freda, to endure such things." "Well, it was not for very long," she answered. "I hope that 'place' was quite exceptional," I said, again mouthing the distasteful word, and with a severe aspect. "Oh, quite! There aren't many Mrs. Tatlows in this world. By the way, Hilda, since the mood for confession is upon me, I may as well own up something else." "What! more boarding-houses?" I cried. "Oh, no! I am done with boarding-houses. But what will you say when I tell you that I have been lady's-maid to Lady A." "A real lady's-maid! Not a sort of lady lady's-maid?" I exclaimed, rather horrified. "I thought you would be shocked. Yet it was the pleasantest work I have ever had. She is very beautiful, and, in her odd, flighty way, very kind. I used to love doing her long ashy-coloured hair. It was down to her feet when I used to brush it out at night. I often brushed it till I could scarcely stand, for the pleasure of handling it." "You were not like an ordinary servant, Freda, surely?" "Oh, no! though I was prepared to accept that when I went to Overton Towers. But I found a little room allotted to me close by Lady A.'s own rooms, and she had given orders that I was to have my meals there. So I was not with the other servants, and when I wasn't on duty I could read or write, or do anything I liked in my own little room." "How long did you stay, Freda?" "Well, not many months. Her ladyship said to me suddenly one day, when I met her eyes in the mirror: 'I should like to know, my dear, why you are masquerading as my maid'." "What did you say?"