"How do you do, Mrs. Merriman? I hope you are all quite well at the school. How was Jane when you heard from her last?"
"Almost quite well, I am glad to say. She will be able to return to her lessons in the middle of September. I have something to say to you, Rosamund, and as we have met here in the avenue, I need not go up to the house."
"Just as you like about that," said Rosamund. "Wouldn't you like to have a cup of tea? I am sure Lady Jane would be pleased to see you. Are you not tired? The walk is a somewhat long one."
"I am never tired," replied Mrs. Merriman. "If my dear husband, my beloved Professor, had even half my strength, we should not be obliged to keep a school full of troublesome girls at all."
"Indeed! are the others troublesome?" asked Rosamund, her eyes sparkling.
"I cannot say that they are particularly troublesome now that you are away."
Rosamund lowered her lids, but her eyes danced. She looked on the ground.
"If I am to go back to the school next term, and take Irene with me, I don't know how I shall bear it," she said to herself.
Mrs. Merriman, however, was nothing if not to the point.
"My dear," she said slowly, "it is my husband's lot and mine to have to earn money in a way which is in no way congenial to either of us."