ll-educated." Without losing a moment
I went straight to the hotel where the lady lived, saw her, pleased her;
she was good, kind Mrs. Hill.

I gave her an assumed name, the first that entered my head, and referred
her to madame, at my pension. When I returned home I said:

"Madame, I have two hundred francs here in my desk; they shall be yours
if you will not undeceive a lady who is coming here to assure herself
that I am respectable and well-educated, and that I am Miss Leonard, an
orphan, and of an honourable family."

Madame coloured and hesitated; she was surprised at my audacity; but I
knew that she had bills coming due just then, and that she was
extravagant. We, her pupils, had talked over these things. She
hesitated, but in the end agreed to oblige her dear child, who had been
to her so good and so profitable a pupil. Perhaps she thought I acted
with the consent of my mother, that it was not her affair, and that
Providence had sent her my little offering to help her to pay her just
debts.

Mrs. Hill came the next day; a word satisfied her, and she only stayed
about three minutes. She was preparing to leave Paris for Rome, and had
many affairs to attend to in the meantime. She urged me to come to her
without delay, and in a few hours I was established under her roof.

I was then quite unaware that I had omitted to mention Mrs. Hill's name
or address to madame, and that madame had forgotten, or had not been
sufficiently interested in the matter to ask it. As I said before, I
think it is likely that madame believed I acted with the consent of my
friends, and that she had no further concern in the matter. Indeed,
indeed, I had then no idea of deserting my mother altogether. I was
hurried along by impulse, and I intended, when the hurry of action
should be over, to write and tell her of all I had done. I little
thought that when I quitted my school that day, without leaving behind
me the name and address of my new protector, I cut away the only clue by
which it might be possible my mother should find me in the future. I did
not know that I should afterwards deliberately turn my back upon her,
and hide myself from her.

Arthur Noble dined with us on that very first evening of my acquaintance
with the Hills. You know that I have been long engaged to Arthur, and I
will speak to you freely about him. He has often told me since that he
liked me from the first moment he saw me. I felt it even that evening;
though I