“Wrong! Bless you! no,” replied Jasper. “And now, my dear, what is the matter with you? You look——”
“How?” replied Sylvia.
“Just as if you were bursting to tell me something.”
“I am—I am,” answered Sylvia. “Oh Jasper, you must help me!”
“Of course I will, dear.”
“I have resolved to accept your most kind offer. I will pay you somehow, in some fashion, but if you could make just one of Evelyn’s frocks fit for me to wear!”
“Ah!” replied Jasper. “Now, I am as pleased about this as I could be about anything. We will have more than one, my pretty young miss. But what do you want it for?”
“I am going to do a great, big, dangerous thing,” replied Sylvia. “If father discovers, things will be very bad, I am sure; but perhaps he will not discover. Anyhow, I am not proof against temptation. I met Lady Frances Wynford.”
“And how does her ladyship look?” asked Jasper—“as proud as ever?”
“She was not proud to me, Jasper; she was quite nice. She asked me to take a drive with her.”