I felt myself burning with a hot blush all over my face as I stammered out:
“I am sure I never thought of anything so impertinent, but—but—if there was anything I could do—read or—”
I stopped again. Never very confident in myself, I felt a miserable sense that I might have been going too far. I wished most ardently that my mother or Adelaide had been there to take the weight of such a conversation from my shoulders. What was my surprise to hear Miss Hallam say, in a tone quite smooth, polished, and polite:
“Come and drink tea with me to-morrow afternoon—afternoon tea I mean. You can go away again as soon as you like. Will you?”
“Oh, thank you. Yes, I will.”
“Very well. I shall expect you between four and five. Good-afternoon.”
“Let me come with you to your carriage,” said I, hastily. “Jane—our servant is so clumsy.”
I preceded her with care, saw her seated in her carriage and driven toward the Grange, which was but a few hundred yards from our own gates, and then I returned to the house. And as I went in again, my companion-shadow glided once more to my side with soft, insinuating, irresistible importunity, and I knew that it would be my faithful attendant for—who could say how long?