CHAPTER IV. THE NEW GOVERNESS AND HER PUPIL.
The English lesson next morning proved rather an ordeal. It took place in one of the many sitting-rooms, a large room with an open hearth, on which, however, no fire was lighted. But with a shawl round my shoulders, and a casseta, or brass box filled with live charcoal, for my feet, I managed to keep moderately warm.
Bianca rather sullenly drew a small collection of reading-books, grammars, and exercise-books, all bearing marks of careless usage, from a cabinet, and placed them on the table. Then drawing a chair opposite mine, she fixed her suspicious, curious eyes on me, and said in French—
"Have you any sisters, Miss Meredith?"
"I have two. But we must speak English, Marchesina."
"I always spoke French with Miss Clarke," answered Bianca.
Miss Clarke, as I subsequently gathered, was my predecessor, who had recently left the palazzo after a sojourn of eighteen months, and who, to judge by results, must have performed her duties in a singularly perfunctory fashion.
"Are your sisters married?" Bianca condescended to say in English, looking critically at my grey merino gown, with its banded bodice, and at my hair braided simply round my head.