She led me into a pretty little room with a very deep window seat. It was furnished simply, but comfortably, though quite devoid of all knick-knacks.
When I was alone, I just knelt down and asked that even here I might be given some work to do, and, above all, that I might not be ashamed to own my Master.
Miss Rayner appeared at dinner in a severe black silk made perfectly plain; she glanced at my lighter costume as we took our seats at the table, and said,—
'How many of those flimsy gowns have you brought with you? I told you I should have no company.'
'I have only one other with me,' I replied meekly.
'I think girls spend more money on evening dresses than any other object, and generally look the worse for them,' she continued. 'Why on earth women shouldn't have a universal dress suit, like the men, I can't imagine.'
'You do not mean the same as the men's?' I said, laughing.
'The same in colour, if not in cut,' she said briskly. 'Black and white would be suitable for young and old, and the variety of face would be more noticeable, instead of as now, the variety of dress.'
And then she turned to other subjects, giving me an amusing account of her last visit to Chicago, and the people she had been introduced to there.
When dinner was over we went back to the drawing-room, and without further preface she said,—