The girl hesitated, then curiosity or some other feeling seemed to prevail, and she drew herself up with a repressed air and silently followed the mistress of the house.
"This is Leila Baltus I told you of," said Hester, standing in front of Mrs. Fellowes' chair.
Something seemed to irritate the girl, who said in a bellicose tone: "Ho, so you've got hold of my name, have you? Well, I'm glad and I'm sorry," she muttered, scanning Hester eagerly, while Mrs. Fellowes eyes rested on her with a meditative glance.
"Oh, you needn't be eyeing me up and down like that," retorted the girl, with an insolent toss of her head. "You'll not catch me sitting on a bench like a chit of a schoolgirl after I've seen life. La, you could hardly expect Leila Baltus to do thatt at this time o' day," she added, with a laugh.
Before she had finished speaking Mrs. Fellowes' eyes were upon her knitting again. Her face looked grave and troubled, but she made no remark.
"But won't you just come once and see what a happy afternoon we have?" asked Hester in a coaxing tone. "We have some beautiful patterns for clothes, and there is reading aloud and singing," she urged, looking into the bitter face with a winning smile of which her friend, glancing up suddenly, seemed to catch the pathos, as a ray of sunlight from aslant the green blinds lit up the fair young face till it looked as an angel's might. Mrs. Fellowes sighed deeply as she bent over her work again, and did not let her eyes rest further on the stranger.
"Well, I'll not come to your meeting! That's flat! But no offence meant. I say, does your husband happen to be at home?" asked the girl sharply. "It's with La'yer Rayner I've got a bit of business."
"Oh, you want to see my husband on business, do you? You are one of his clients, perhaps? He is at the High Court, but you might see him by appointment," said Hester, thinking after all she had made a stupid mistake.
"Oh, as to thatt, I'm not particular anxious to face those business dens. Maybe I'll get a peep of him yet, and a word of him too, nearer home, some day. I'll be stepping now. Sorry I can't oblige you about the class," she added, glancing down with malicious air at Mrs. Fellowes, who still sat with her eyes fixed on her knitting. "Maybe you'll be good enough to mention to Mister Rayner as how Leila Baltus called—his client—is that how you name it?" she asked, with a titter; then, drawing her tawdry black lace scarf round her handsome shoulders, she walked away and disappeared into the bright sunshine beyond the green blinds.
"Well, we haven't made much of Miss Leila Baltus after all," said Hester, throwing herself into her chair. "I suppose you came to the conclusion at once that she wasn't a hopeful 'Friendly?'"