“Oh, please don’t speak so. I am very glad to play--for anyone. Everybody is very kind to me. I am here to be of any use I can.” “I hope, Miss Summerhayes,” said Dolff, growing very red, “that you don’t think I would presume to ask you--on that ground.” “I don’t mean anything disagreeable,” said Janet. “I am sure you don’t ask me because I am the governess. But if your mother makes me like one of the family in other things, I must be so in this too.” “How strange it is!” cried Dolff; and then he added, growing redder, “Don’t be angry with me, Miss Summerhayes. To think that being one of our family should be anything to you!” “Why not?” said Janet. “It is always a great thing for a governess to have such a kind home.” “A governess!” he said. “It hurts me to hear you call yourself a governess. Don’t, oh, don’t, please!” “Why not?” she said again, and laughed. “It does not hurt me at all. I have no objection to being a governess. You need not be so careful of my feelings. I am quite contented to be what I am.” “That is because you are----” Dolff murmured something in his young moustache, and grew redder than ever. Janet was not sure that it was not ‘an angel’; and she was very much amused--not displeased either. There is no harm in being well thought of. She liked it on the whole. “It is because I had--nothing else to look for,” she said; “and I am not a discontented person. One can always get a little fun out of everything. It was rather fun coming out like this upon the world, not knowing what sort of place one might find oneself in. It is the nearest to beginning a brand-new life of anything I know.” “Well, about fun I can’t tell,” said Dolff, a little abashed. “I--I hope you think there is a little more in us than that.” “There is a great deal more,” said Janet, “oh, a great deal more. You have all been so good. I mean before I came that it was fun imagining what my new family would be like, and how I should get on, and what sort of a pupil I should have, and all that.” “I daresay,” said Dolff, “you never thought there would be a cub of a brother to bother you with his vulgar songs--oh, I know they’re vulgar--at least, I know now. A set of men, you know, is different. We bellow them out at each other’s rooms, and make an awful row in the chorus, and think them jolly.” “And so they are, I suppose,” said Janet, with a smile. “I assure you,” said Dolff, “I don’t think so now. I have been getting more and more ashamed of them, Miss Summerhayes. I’ve gone on singing them just for the pleasure of your playing. But I’ll not do it any more.” “I cannot see why you should give up what is a pleasure to you,” said Janet. “If you think I dislike playing for you, it is not so at all.”