ppose he likes it."

"How long has he been teaching there?"

"Soon after I went first," said Nora, casting down her eyes. There was a
little smile upon her face, as though she were not at all displeased at
the confession. But a cold chill crept into Janetta's heart.

"Has it been a scheme--a plot, then? Did you suggest to him that he
should come--and pretend that he was a stranger."

"Oh, Janetta, don't look so solemn! No, I did not suggest it. He met me
one day when I was out with Georgie shopping, and he walked with us for
a little way and found out where we lived, and all about us. And then I
heard from Mrs. Smith that she had arranged with him to teach drawing to
the girls. She did not know who he was, except that he had all sorts of
medals and certificates and things, and that he had exhibited in the
Royal Academy."

"And you did not say to her openly that he was a connection of yours?"

"He isn't," said Nora, petulantly. "He is _your_ connection, not mine.
There was no use in saying anything, only Georgie used to giggle so
dreadfully when he came near her that I was always afraid we should be
found out."

"You might at least have left Georgie out of your plot," said Janetta,
who was very deeply grieved at Nora's revelations. "I always thought
that _she_ was straightforward."

"You needn't be so hard on us, Janetta," murmured Nora. "I'm sure we did
not mean to be anything but straightforward."

"It was not straightforward to conceal your acquaintance with Mr.
Cuthbert Brand from Mrs. Smith. Especially," said Janetta, looking
steadily at her sister, "if you had any idea he came there to see you."

She seemed to wait for an answer, and Nora felt obliged to respond.

"He never said so. But, of course"--with a little pout--"Georgie and I
knew quite well. He used to send me lovely flowers by post--he did not
write to me, but I knew where they came from, for he would sometimes put
his initials inside the lid; and he always looked at my drawings a great
deal more than the others--and he--he looked at me too, Janetta, and you
need not be so unbelieving."

There was such a curious little touch of Mrs. Colwyn's irritability in
Nora's manner at that moment that Janetta stood and looked at her
without replying, conscious only of a great sinking at the heart. Vain,
affected, irresponsible, childish!--were all these qualities to appear
in Nora, as they had already appeared in her mother, to lead her to
destruction?