“And is it true—excuse me for asking—that he kissed you this afternoon?”
“Yes, Mrs. Mainwaring.” The answer came at once, clear and cold.
The elder lady was disconcerted for a moment by this prompt reply; then she said, between tightly compressed lips:
“I did not think you would allow a gentleman you were not engaged to to take such a liberty.”
Miss Lane gave a little hard laugh.
“Not a liberty, Mrs. Mainwaring; surely you make a mistake! Mr. Braithwaite did not wait to be allowed; he was good enough to give me a kiss as he would, with his easy good nature to any dependent. I only wonder you did not know me better than to think I could object.”
Mrs. Mainwaring read the acute misery in the girl’s face. She was sorry for her. However, as she murmured out rather incoherently, Betty was out walking and had seen the kiss given, and of course it was not a proper sight for her, and would Miss Lane kindly understand she must leave at the end of the quarter?
And Miss Lane said she would be very glad to do so. And so she would have been, if she had known where to go.
CHAPTER IV.
It was now the end of May, and Miss Lane was to leave Garstone Vicarage in the last days of June. She went through the dull round of her daily duties as carefully as ever; but the buoyancy of spirit that had formerly made her the children’s favorite play-fellow out of school-hours had deserted her.