I made a few changes in my toilette when
tea for two persons was brought in, and Mrs. Dance and I sat down to
table. The old lady was well on with her second cup before she made any
remark other than was required by the necessities of the occasion.

I have called her an old woman, and such she looked in my youthful eyes,
although her years were only about sixty. She wore a dark brown dress
and a black silk apron, and had on a cap with thick frilled borders,
under which her grey hair was neatly snooded away. She looked ruddy and
full of health. A shrewd, sensible woman, evidently; yet with a motherly
kindness about her that made me cling to her with a child's unerring
instinct.

"You look tired, poor thing," she said, as she leisurely stirred her
tea; "and well you may, considering the long journey you have had
to-day. I don't suppose that her ladyship will keep you more than ten
minutes in the Green Saloon, and after that you can go to bed as soon
as you like. What a surprise for all of us your coming has been! Dear,
dear! who would have expected such a thing this morning? But I knew by
the twitching of my corns that something uncommon was going to happen. I
was really frightened of telling her ladyship that you were here.
There's no knowing how she might have taken it; and there's no knowing
what she will decide to do with you to-morrow."

"But what has Lady Chillington to do with me in any way?" I asked.
"Before this morning I never even heard her name; and now it seems that
she is to do what she likes with me."

"That she will do what she likes with you, you may depend, dear," said
Mrs. Dance. "As to how she happens to have the right so to do, that is
another thing, and one about which it is not my place to talk nor yours
to question me. That she possesses such a right you may make yourself
certain. All that you have to do is to obey and to ask no questions."

I sat in distressed and bewildered silence for a little while. Then I
ventured to say: "Please not to think me rude, but I should like to know
who Sister Agnes is."

Mrs. Dance stirred uneasily in her chair and bent her eyes on the fire,
but did not immediately answer my question.

"Sister Agnes is Lady Chillington's companion," she said at last. "She
reads to her, and writes her letters, and talks to her, and all that,
you know. Sister Agnes is a Roman Catholic, and came here from the
convent of Saint Ursula. However, she is not a nun, but something lik