“I could let them know at school, could I not?”
“I would if I were you,” said the injudicious woman. “I would tell the girls if I were you.”
“Oh yes; so I can. I wonder if they will be nice girls at Chepstow House?”
“You let them feel your power, and don’t knock under to any of them,” said Jasper. “And now, my dear, I must really send you home. There, I’ll walk a bit of the way back with you. You are looking very bonny, my little white Eve; you have got quite a nice color in your cheeks. I am glad you are well; and I am glad, too, that the governess has gone, for I don’t want her to get the better of me. Remember what I said about school.”
“That I will, Jasper; I’ll be sure to remember.”
“It would please her ladyship if you got on well there,” continued Jasper.
“I don’t want to please Aunt Frances.”
“Of course you don’t. Nasty, horrid thing! I shall never forgive her for turning me off. Now then, dear, you had best run home. I don’t want her to see us talking together. Good-by, pet; good-by.”
CHAPTER XV.—SCHOOL.
The girls at Chepstow House were quite excited at the advent of Audrey and Evelyn. They were nice girls, nearly all of them; they were ladies, too, of a good class; but they had not been at Chepstow House long without coming under the influence of what dominated the entire place—that big house on the hill, with its castellated roof and its tower, its moat too, and its big, big gardens, its spacious park, and all its surroundings. It was a place to talk to their friends at home about, and to think of and wonder over when at school. The girls at Chepstow House had often looked with envy at Audrey as she rode by on her pretty Arab pony. They talked of her to each other; they criticised her appearance; they praised her actions. She was a sort of princess to them. Then there appeared on the scene another little princess—a strange child, without style, without manners, without any personal attractions; and this child, it was whispered, was the real heiress. By and by pretty Audrey would cease to live at Castle Wynford, and the little girl with the extraordinary face would be monarch of all she surveyed. The girls commented over this story amongst each other, as girls will; and when the younger Miss Henderson—Miss Lucy, as they called her—told them that Audrey Wynford and her cousin Evelyn were coming as schoolgirls to Chepstow House their excitement knew no bounds.