Mr. French knew quite well that anything with petticoats on it and in the way of a lady would cause his cousin to infest the house. However, Effie's education had to be considered.
"Sure," said Mr. French to himself, "it'll be all right if I get one old enough."
It was only this morning that he broke the news.
"Dick," said Mr. French. "There's a governess coming for Effie."
"A what did you say?" asked Mr. Giveen, looking up from the newspaper, the advertisement page of which he had been reading upside down. One of his not altogether sane habits was to sit and stare at a paper and pretend to be reading it, so that his thoughts might wander unperceived. "A what did you say?"
"A governess is coming for Effie."
"Oh," said Mr. Giveen, and relapsed into the study of the newspaper.
Now, this appearance of indifference was a very ominous sign. The news that a new servant was coming would have caused this inveterate tattler to break into a volley of questions, questions of the most minute and intimate description as to the name, age, colour, looks, height, and native place of the newcomer; yet this important information left him dumb, but it was a speechlessness that only affected the tongue. If you had watched him closely you would have noticed that his eyes were travelling rapidly up and down the columns of the paper, that his hand was tremulous.
Mr. French, who was not an observer, went on to talk of other matters, when suddenly Mr. Giveen dropped his paper.