"`Lady young?' he said.

"`Twenty.'

"I saw the man tighten his lips.

"`Pretty?'

"`Very pretty,' I said, emphatically.

"The man's lips tightened still more, and I saw a faint smile as he spoke again.

"`We'll do our best, sir, but this is a detective case. I should go to Scotland Yard if I was you. Young ladies will do these sort of things.

Gets led away, you know.'

"`What is it, Thomson?' said an officer whom I saw to be an inspector; and his coming stopped an indignant exclamation on my lips.

"`Young lady missing,' said the sergeant.

"`What description?' said the inspector, going to the desk.

"I repeated it hastily, and the inspector turned sharply round to his subordinate and spoke to him in a low tone. He then turned to me.

"`I'm very sorry, sir,' he said kindly. `Just take a seat. Any relative?'

"`Daughter,' I panted; and then I read that in the man's eyes which made the whitewashed office seem to swim round; a deathly sickness overcame me, and all was blank.

"The next thing I remember is feeling cold water splashing my face, and a kindly voice saying--

"`Come, come! hold up, sir. It's not so bad as that. There, drink some of this.'

"I drank some of the water the inspector held to my lips, and two constables who had been supporting me drew back.

"`I've been very ill,' I stammered, `and I am weak; but tell me, pray tell me the worst.'

"`Well, sir, the worst is that the young lady's getting better, I hope.

That was the last report, if it's the same. She was knocked down by a van on the fifteenth; concussion of the brain; small bone of arm broken; no means of identification; taken to Saint George's Hospital; last news, still insensible, but doctors hopeful.'

"This princ.i.p.ally read to me from a book which the inspector consulted.

"`A cab, please, quick!' I faltered.

"`Cab directly, Thomson,' said the inspector.--`There, I'll go with you.'

"That inspector holds a place in my heart amongst those to whom I owe grat.i.tude, for he was very kind. He took me, trembling and agitated, to the hospital, and there, after a short delay, we were taken to a bedside in a small, beautifully clean, and airy ward, where a doctor was sitting by my darling, who lay there very feeble, but with the light of reason beginning to shine once more from her gentle eyes.

"She recognised me, but her voice was quite a whisper, and I could see that she was confused and puzzled as to her presence there.

"I need not tell you of her rapid strides back to convalescence, nor more of her accident than that all she recollected was a warning cry as she crossed the road, and then seeming to wake in the hospital with me standing at her side.

"Our sojourn by the sea lasted another month for her sake, but by then I was busy once again, and working easily and well.

"Need I say that my darlings were both soon back in their old home, never to leave us again?"

"I could not refrain from smiling.

"`Why do you laugh?' he said.

"`I was only thinking,' I said, sadly, as I could not help comparing the young happy maidenhood of the two girls with my own. I did not know that I smiled.

"Oh, I see your meaning," he said, laughing. "Well, yes, perhaps you are right: young birds will make nests elsewhere, and there may be fresh partings; for the son of our old clergyman, who called upon Hetty in Woodmount Square, spends a great deal of his spare time here."

"Yes," I said, "and I thought Marie blushed very vividly the other day when I saw her here with that lad Edwards."

"Ah, yes," he said, nodding his head thoughtfully. "I knew John Edwards' father at school. He's a good young fellow, and as you say, or rather as you think, we may lose our darlings after all."

"And that was your great trouble?" I said.

"Yes," he replied, "sunshine and rain. I had both, though I could not see clearly through the storm."

"Your failing was that of many," I said sadly; "and it is so, that whatever rain falls into each life, G.o.d sends his sunshine to dry those tears."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

AS COMPANION TO A LADY.

The governess question was discussed more than once at the Hendricks-- the position of governesses and companions, Mrs Hendrick and her daughters agreeing with me that some poor girls suffered a martyrdom at the hands of their employers, especially where there was a family of spoilt children, but at the same time we acknowledged that there was often a want of tact on the part of the young people who undertook the duties of governesses.

On the last occasion it was in the presence of a quiet subdued lady, who seemed to be about four or five-and-thirty, who had formed a friendship for Hetty while she was at Mrs Saint Ray's, and had continued the acquaintance since. There was something about her that attracted me at the first occasion of our meeting, and by degrees our friendly feeling strengthened, but it was not until after the evening when she spoke that my heart truly warmed to her, for there was a similarity in her career to mine that seemed to act as a bond.

On the evening in question Agnes Laurie had been listening quietly to the conversation, and at last said:--

"I believe, of course, that there is a great deal of ill-treatment of governesses, but my experience has been as companion to a lady, and I have found nothing but kindness. It is many years ago, now over ten, since I came from the country, and I can recall, only too well, the morning when my landlady came into the room upon a very unpleasant errand.

"`I'm very sorry Miss,' she exclaimed, `and I'm very sorry you're not well off; but I'm only a poor woman myself, and if you can't pay the rent of this room, I don't see as you can afford the rent of the one upstairs.'

"Here my landlady rubbed her nose viciously upon her ap.r.o.n, and stared straight out of the very dirty window.

"As this was evidently a challenge to me to reply, I said, as firmly as I could, a few words which brought out the reason for the woman's visit that morning.

"`Am I to understand, then, that you wish me to leave.'

"`If you please, miss, at the end of the week, for there's the gent on the first floor would like to have this bedroom.'

"`Very well, Mrs Ruddock,' I said, `I will find a room elsewhere.'

"`Thanky, miss,' she said sharply; and giving her nose another vicious rub, she left me to my thoughts--and my tears.