Winifred did not interrupt her. Now and then her colour rose a little; once or twice, as Hertha was not sorry to see, she winced, and seemed on the point of bursting out with some exclamation. And then, when Miss Norreys had come to the end of the first part of her story and stopped, the girl looked up. "Yes," she said, "I see how it must have looked to you, and I see, as I certainly did not before, that I was _not_ perfectly ingenuous. To a certain extent I deceived you; at least, I allowed circumstances to deceive you and others, and I was glad of it, because it suited my purpose. But remember I did not start with any intention of deceiving you, and I thought I had a right to take advantage of the mistake when it arose; because, from _my_ point of view, if my work was worth paying for, I had a right to the payment, don't you see?" and she looked up anxiously. "Perhaps so, but you had no right to the _position_, which alone made your earning payment possible. At least, you have no right to obtain it without explaining your circumstances," said Hertha. Winifred was silent. "And," Hertha went on, though sorry for the mortification she felt that her words must cause, "to tell the truth, I don't think your work has been exactly worth paying for till now. Everything requires an apprenticeship; part of the idea of this society is to give girls who need to earn their livelihood a chance of fitting themselves to do so, by giving them the necessary apprenticeship gratis, and, more than that, by paying them from the first." Winifred grew crimson. "I never thought of that," she said. "I am perfectly ready, indeed I would much rather pay back what they have given me up to this. For I believe my work _is_, or will be from now, worth paying for." "Very likely," said Hertha, but then she went on to lay the situation in two aspects before Winifred--her own clear home duties, so peculiar and unmistakable; and the wrong of taking advantage of the society to the prejudice of some other girl in real need of it. The first of these Winifred began by disposing of glibly enough. The work of home was better done by Louise than by herself--better, well, not literally better--she knew she had a clearer head for figures, and a more ready grasp of things than her sister. But she was not nearly so patient and sweet tempered as Louise, she decided complacently: "Oh no, not nearly. I should try papa awfully." Hertha stared at her. "And you would make your own shortcomings an excuse for neglecting duties?" she exclaimed. "What sophistry! What a vicious circle you are involving yourself in! Patience and self-control can be acquired. You speak as if your besetting sins belonged to you, like the colour of your eyes or the shape of your nose." Winifred did not reply. "And my second point--that of taking what is not meant for you?" Hertha went on.