e, you know--whether we were likely to
suit each other. Then mother will come and tell you all she has to
say about me. Of course I know what it'll be. They all say I've a
horrible temper. I don't think so myself; and I'm sure I don't think
I should quarrel with _you_, you look so nice. But I can't get on at
home, and it's better for all that we should part. I'm just
two-and-twenty--do I look older? I haven't learnt to do anything,
and I suppose I shall never need to.'

'Do you wish to see _much_ society?' inquired Mrs. Mumford, who was
thinking rapidly, 'or should you prefer a few really nice people?
I'm afraid I don't quite understand yet whether you want society of
the pleasure-seeking kind, or--'

She left the alternative vague. Miss Derrick again reflected for a
moment before abruptly declaring herself.

'I feel sure that your friends are the kind I want to know. At all
events, I should like to try. The great thing is to get away from
home and see how things look.'

They laughed together. Emmeline, after a little more talk, offered
to take her visitor over the house, and Miss Derrick had loud praise
for everything she saw.

'What I like about you,' she exclaimed of a sudden, as they stood
looking from a bedroom window on to the garden, 'is that you don't
put on any--you know what I mean. People seem to me to be generally
either low and ignorant, or so high and mighty there's no getting on
with them at all. You're just what I wanted to find. Now I must go
and send mother to see you.'

Emmeline protested against this awkward proceeding. Why should not
both come together and have a cup of tea? If it were desired, Miss
Derrick could step into the garden whilst her mother said whatever
she wished to say. The girl assented, and in excellent spirits
betook herself to the railway station. Emmeline waited something
less than a quarter of an hour; then a hansom drove up, and Mrs.
Higgins, after a deliberate surveyal of the house front, followed
her daughter up the pathway.

The first sight of the portly lady made the situation clearer to
Mrs. Mumford. Louise Derrick represented a certain stage of
civilisation, a degree of conscious striving for better things; Mrs.
Higgins was prosperous and self-satisfied vulgarity. Of a complexion
much lighter than the girl's, she still possessed a coarse
comeliness, which pointed back to the dairymaid type of damsel. Her
features revealed at the same time a kindly nature and an i