"You have very pretty scenery about here," he said, by way of changing the conversation.
The girl's face drooped at once; she did not answer.
"What an odd young woman she is," said Sydney to himself. "What an odd governess for the children!"
Suddenly she looked up, with a very sweet bright look. "I am afraid I offended you," she said, deprecatingly. "I did not mean to say anything wrong. I am so much interested in the Vanebury working people, although we are here some miles distant from them, that when I heard you were coming I made up my mind at once that I would speak to you."
"You have—friends, perhaps, in that district?" said Sydney.
"N—no—not exactly," she said, hesitating. "But I know a good deal about Vanebury."
"Nan goes there very often, don't you, Nan?" said little Jack, suddenly interposing. "And papa says you do more harm than good."
"Nan" colored high. "You should not repeat what papa says," she answered, severely. "You have often been told that it is naughty."
"But it's true," Jack murmured, doggedly. And Sydney could not help smiling at the discomfited expression on "Nan's" face.
However, he was—or thought he was—quite equal to the occasion. He changed the subject, and began talking adroitly about her tastes and occupations. Nan soon became at ease with him and answered his questions cheerfully, although she seemed puzzled now and then by the strain of compliment into which he had a tendency to fall. The house was reached at last; and Jack snatched his hands from those of his companions, and ran indoors. Nan halted at a side-door, and now spoke with the sweet earnestness that impressed Sydney even more than her lovely face.