“You may remember, Miss Henderson,” said her Ladyship, with all the formality of a charge in her manner,--“you may remember that on the day I engaged your services you were obliging enough to furnish me with a brief summary of your acquirements.” She paused, as if expecting some intimation of assent, and after an interval of a few seconds, Kate smiled, and said,--“It must have been a very meagre catalogue, my Lady.” “Quite the reverse. It was a perfect marvel to me how you ever found time to store your mind with such varied information; and yet, notwithstanding that imposing array of accomplishments, I now find that your modesty--perhaps out of deference to my ignorance--withheld fully as many more.” Kate's look of bewilderment at this speech was the only reply she made. “Oh, of course you do not understand me,” said Lady Dorothea, sneeringly; “but I mean to be most explicit. Have you any recollection of the circumstance I allude to?” “I remember perfectly the day, madam, I waited on you for the first time.” “That's exactly what I mean. Now, pray, has any portion of our discourse dwelt upon your mind?” “Yes, my Lady; a remark of your Ladyship's made a considerable impression upon me at the moment, and has continued frequently to rise to my recollection since that.” “May I ask what it was?” “It was with reference to the treatment I had been so long accustomed to in the family of the Duchesse de Luygnes, and which your Ladyship characterized by an epithet I have never forgotten. At the time I thought it severe; I have learned to see it just. You called it an 'irreparable mischief.' Your Ladyship said most truly.” “I was never more convinced of the fact than at this very moment,” said Lady Dorothea, as a flush of anger covered her cheek. “The ill-judging condescension of your first protectors has left a very troublesome legacy for their successors. Your youth and inexperience--I do not desire to attribute it to anything more reprehensible--led you, probably, into an error regarding the privileges you thus enjoyed, and you fancied that you owed to your own claims what you were entirely indebted to from the favor of others.” “I have no doubt that the observation of your Ladyship is quite correct,” said Kate, calmly.