'Dear me! how romantic—how funny! But I suppose you will have no place now to spend your holidays in?'
'None,' sighed Alison, who had never thought of them till then, and she looked round the bare, bleak school-room, the scene of her daily toil, and where nearly all her time was passed now; but just then the carriage was announced, and she was relieved of the oppressive society of the somewhat irrepressible Miss Victoria De Jobbyns.
If the children talked thus of poor old Archie Auchindoir, they might speak of the insolent 'Captain Smith.' Thus she might lose her situation and be again cast on the world. Oh, how tempest-tossed was her poor little heart!
The perfect, self-posed, and ladylike manner of Alison was to a certain extent lost upon the rather rough, pampered, and hoydenish damsel who had just driven off to the Row to meet her admirer, no doubt, and who saw in her only a paid dependant, whom her mother might discard like one of the housemaids at an hour's notice or less. Her sweet nature, her natural lightness and cheerfulness, her readiness and wish to oblige, yet never intrusively in any way, were all lost on the coarse natures of those among whom her evil fortune had cast her.
She was glad that on this particular day, inspired by filial reverence, she had substituted the relic of her father for the locket which contained the photo of Bevil Goring, whose face she would have shrunk from subjecting to the off-hand criticism of the young lady who had just left her; and she was not without a stronger fear that the military lover of Miss De Jobbyns—if lover he was—was the roué Dehorsey, who now haunted Kensington Gardens and Pembridge Square, though 'Captain Smith' seemed scarcely the kind of man to be captivated by the soap-boiler's daughter.
CHAPTER XVIII.
MISS DE JOBBYNS' ADMIRER.
'You will be good enough to keep the children quiet and amused this evening, Miss Cheyne,' said Mrs. De Jobbyns, 'as we have company coming to dinner. Also have them nicely dressed, as they may be sent for to dessert or to the drawing-room.'
Being now used to be spoken to in this style, Alison merely bowed, on which Mrs. De Jobbyns said, sharply,
'You heard me, I presume?'