Lady Jane proceeded to satisfy his very apparent wants.
“I say,” he began, as he watched the cream mingling with the tea, “what is the new Miss Kirk’s name?”
“The last governess, a lovely creature with violet eyes.”
Miss Kirk had been the last governess—a lovely creature with violet eyes and hair that curled at her temples. Lady Jane had found her photograph in the pocket of a shooting-coat belonging to the Colonel which had been brought to her maid to have a button sewn on, and the circumstance had led to the young lady’s abrupt departure. More or less similar circumstances, in some of which her two younger sons had been concerned, had produced similar results in a number of cases. That is why the question of the new governess was a sore point at King’s Follitt.
“No one has yet answered my advertisement,” answered Lady Jane, “and none of our friends seem to know of just the right person.”
“How very odd!” observed the Colonel. “We generally get so many more answers than we want.”
“What those girls need is a keeper,” said Jocelyn, with an audible accompaniment of toast-crunching.
“You might get one from the County Lunatic Asylum,” suggested Lionel thoughtfully. “You could get one for about the same price as a good governess, I should think.”