“How kind you are!” her visitor exclaimed. “But my principal depends on me; and I think that I can be useful to him.”
The lady made a pettish movement.
“He can get others to do his humdrum work. I heard him speak once, and did not like him. They call him ‘broad.’ Oh, yes! he is very broad. He reminds me of one of my school-lessons in natural philosophy. The book said that a single grain of gold may be hammered out to cover—I have forgotten how many hundreds of square inches. Not that I mean to call your principal a man of gold, though. Yes, he is broad, very broad. But he is, oh, so very thin!”
The young man looked grave. “I am pained that you do not esteem him. Perhaps you do not quite understand his character.”
“Now, you,” said the lady, fixing her eyes on his, “you seem to me to have great depth of feeling and profound convictions.”
There was an abrupt rustling sound at the window. The lady there had risen and stepped out into the veranda. They could hear her go to the drawing-room window and enter.
“She is so much at her ease!” said the lady of the lounge. “She was recommended to me by a friend as a companion with whom I could keep up my French. We speak no other language to each other. But she does not act in the least like a dependent. I must really get rid of her.”
A servant opened the door to say that the carriage the gentleman expected had come.
“Must you go?” the lady exclaimed reproachfully.
“I promised to go the moment the carriage should come. I don’t know what it is for; but it is some business of importance. I am sorry to go. When may I come again?”