With difficulty she told him, and awaited his censure. To her astonished relief he said: "Bad luck! You see the wicked don't always prosper!"
"But was I so wicked?" she asked defensively. "A girl I know told me she had done the same kind of thing often; she didn't think it was so dreadful. It seems to me an awful fuss about very little, and I don't know why you should have been bothered, even though you are my godfather. What shall you advise them to do?"
"At present," he said cryptically, "I am not quite sure."
She glanced at him half-alarmed. He laughed. "How would you like it if I advised them to send you out to India?"
Stella gasped. "Oh! would you? But how? As a missionary, a companion, a governess—what?"
Again he laughed. "As a companion, perhaps. I'm afraid you would not be much good as a missionary or a governess. What do you think yourself?"
"I shouldn't care. I'd do anything to get to India."
"Well, we shall see. Don't be too hopeful," he looked at his watch. "What time is breakfast?"
"Half-past eight—prayers first."