brows.

"And you are staying behind?"

"Yes. They asked me to go. Mr Judge is very kind. He is my--er--
stepfather!" Claire shrugged again at the strangeness of that word.
"He gave me the warmest of invitations, but I refused. I preferred to
be left."

Mrs Fanshawe hitched herself into her corner, planted her feet more
firmly on the provisionary footstool, and folded her hands on her knee.
She had the air of a person settling down to the enjoyment of a
favourite amusement, and indeed her curiosity was a quality well-known
to all her acquaintances.

"Why?" she asked boldly, and such was the force of her personality that
Claire never dreamt for a moment of refusing to reply.

"Because I want to be independent."

Mrs Fanshawe rolled her eyes to the hat-rail.

"My dear, nonsense! You're far too pretty. Leave that to the poor
creatures who have no chance of finding other people to work for them.
You should change your mind, you know, you really should. India's quite
an agreeable place to put in a few years. The English girl is a trifle
overdone, but with your complexion you would be bound to have a success.
Think it over! Don't be in a hurry to let the chance slip!"

"It _has_ slipped. They sail from Marseilles a week from to-day, and
besides I don't want to change. I like the prospect of independence
better even than being admired."

"Though you like that, too?"

"Of course. Who doesn't? I'm hoping--with good luck--to be admired in
England instead!"

"Then you mustn't be independent!" Mrs Fanshawe said, laughing. "It
was the rage a year or two ago; girls had a craze for joining
Settlements, and running about in the slums, but it's quite out of date.
Hobble skirts killed it. It's impossible to be utilitarian in a hobble
skirt... And how do you propose to show your independence, may I ask?"

"I am going to be French mistress in a High School," Claire said
sturdily, and hated herself because she winced before the eloquent
change of expression which passed over her companion's face.

Mrs Fanshawe said, "Oh, really! How _very_ interesting!" and looked
about as uninterested the while as a human creature could be. In the
pause which followed it was obvious that she was readjusting the first
impression of a young gentlewoman belonging to her own leisured class,
and preparing herself to cross-question an entirely different person--an
ordinary teacher in a High School! There was a touch of patrona