“Of tall girls? oh, why not? It is not their fault to be tall. It is very nice for them to be tall. I am delighted with my tall maid; she can reach things I have to get up on a chair for, and it is not dignified getting up on a chair. And she even snatches up Tiny before she has time to struggle or remonstrate.” “Tiny,” said Mr. Wradisley, with a little wave of his hand, “is the be-all and end-all, I know; no one can hope to beguile your thoughts from that point.” Mrs. Nugent looked up at him quickly with surprise, holding her work suspended in her hand. “Do you think it is quite right,” he said, “or just to the rest of the world? A child is much, but still only a child; and here are you, a noble, perfect woman, with many greater capabilities. I do not flatter; you must know that you are not like other women--gossips, triflers, foolish persons--” “Or even as this publican,” said Mrs. Nugent, who had kept her eyes on him all the time, which had made him nervous, yet gave him a kind of inspiration. “I give alms of all I possess--I--Mr. Wradisley, do you really think this is the kind of argument which you would like a woman whom you profess to respect to adopt?” “Oh, you twist what I say. I am conscious of the same thing myself, though I am, I hope, no Pharisee. To partly give up what was meant for mankind--will that please you better?--to a mere child--” “You must not say such thing over Tiny’s head, Mr. Wradisley. She understands a great deal. If she were not so intent upon this most elaborate part of Dolly’s toilet for the night--” “Mrs. Nugent, could not that spectator for one moment be removed?--could not I speak to you--if it were but for a minute--alone?” She looked at him again, this time putting down the needle-work with a disturbed air. “I wish to hear nothing, from any one, Mr. Wradisley, which she cannot hear.” “Not if I implored for one moment?” His eyes, which were dull by nature, had become hot and shining, his colorless face was flushed; he was so reticent, so calm, that the swelling of something new within him took a form that was alarming. He turned round his hat in his hands as if it were some mystic implement of fate. She hesitated, and cast a glance round her at all the comfort of the little room, as if her shelter had suddenly been endangered, and the walls of her house were going to fall about her ears. Tiny all the time was very busy with her doll. She had arranged its nightgown, settled every button, tied every string, and now, holding it against her little bosom, singing to it, got up to put it to bed. “Mammy’s darling,” said Tiny, “everything as mammy has--dood dolly, dood dolly. Dolly go to bed.”