The little task was performed without the least difficulty, as the hatpins in question were huge discs of tortoiseshell and gold impossible to overlook. Then Lady Sarah, thanking her profusely, put the hat beside her on the couch, and ruffling up her dark hair with a sigh of relief, put one little white hand sparkling with diamonds through Rhoda’s arm, and said coaxingly: “And now do tell me what made you think of coming to us?” “Oh-ho!” thought Rhoda. “This, then, is the reason of my amiable reception! You are curious.” But all she said was: “I was happy here, ten years ago, and Sir Robert saved my life. I thought I should like to see the old house again, and when I got here, and saw your dear little boy, I was delighted to stay.” Lady Sarah was watching her with a piercing expression. “Then when you came here you didn’t know whether you would stay or not?” “No. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even know whether the house was still inhabited by Sir Robert. There was no name given in the advertisement.” It was quite clear to Rhoda that Lady Sarah did not believe her, but as her incredulity was not expressed in words, it was impossible to meet and combat it. They were both silent for a few moments while Lady Sarah smoothed out her gloves with a reflective air. Suddenly Rhoda turned to her: “Do you mind my coming? I wanted to know that.” “Mind! I’m quite delighted to have you here. The great anxiety I had about my boy was to get some one to be with him whom he could love, and I could trust. Well, who could fill the post better than you? I am delighted. And to find that you have been helping Sir Robert. He tells me you copy his notes for him. It’s really too good of you, when he writes such a shocking hand too! I shall have to take you away with me when I go to town, on purpose to decipher his letters to me. I never get much farther myself than the bottom of the first page.” This was all she would say, and when Rhoda left her to dress for dinner, which had been put off till her return, the girl felt perplexed and uneasy. For, while nothing could be more charming than her words and her manner, Rhoda felt it was not possible that so much enthusiasm could be quite genuine. She would have felt still more puzzled if she could have overheard the conversation which took place immediately afterwards between Sir Robert and his wife. Lady Sarah went into her dressing-room, and, being able to dress in the most surprisingly rapid fashion when she chose, emerged thence a quarter of an hour later radiant and refreshed, in a clinging gown of golden-brown satin, veiled in net of gold thread, and trimmed with a huge bunch of red velvet flowers on the left hand side of her bodice. With a butterfly of gold thread in her dark hair, and a single row of big diamonds round her throat, Lady Sarah looked as beautiful as a Princess in a fairy tale.