In her eagerness to serve Maddy and save her from insult, Flora was growing bold, but she only hurt the cause by mentioning the doctor. Agnes was determined now, and she replied:
“It was quite right when we were gone, but it is different now, and Mr. Remington, I am sure, will not suffer it.”
“May I ask him,” Flora persisted, her hand still on the plate.
“No,” Agnes would attend to that, and also see Miss Clyde. All Flora had to do was to remove the plate, which she finally did, muttering to herself. “Such airs! but I know Mr. Guy won’t stand it.”
Meantime, Maddy had put on her prettiest delaine, tied her little dainty white apron, Mrs. Noah’s gift, and with the feeling that she was looking unusually well, started for the parlor to meet her employer, Mrs. Agnes. Jessie had gone in quest of her brother, and thus Agnes was alone when Maddy Clyde first presented herself before her. She had not expected to find Maddy so pretty, and for a moment the hot blood crimsoned her cheek, while her heart throbbed wildly beneath the rich morning-dress. Doctor Holbrook had cause for being attracted by that fresh, bright face, she thought, and so she steeled herself against the better impulses of her nature, impulses which pleaded that for the sake of the past she should be kind to Maddy Clyde.
“Ah, good morning. You are Jessie’s governess, I presume,” she said, bowing distantly, and pretending not to notice the hand which Maddy involuntarily extended toward her. “Jessie speaks well of you, and I am very glad you suit her. You have had a pleasant time, I trust?”
Her voice was so cold and her manner so distant, that Maddy’s eyes for an instant filled with tears, but she answered civilly that she had been very happy, and everybody was very kind. It was harder work to put down Maddy Clyde than Agnes had expected, and after a little further conversation there ensued a silence, which neither was inclined to break. At last, summoning all her courage, Agnes began:
“Excuse me, Miss Clyde, but your own good sense, of which I am sure you have an abundance, must tell you that now Mr. Remington and myself are at home, your intercourse with our family must be rather limited—that is—ahem—that is, neither Mr. Remington nor myself are accustomed to having our governess very much with us. I suppose you have had the range of the parlors, sitting there when you liked, and all this was perfectly proper. Mind, I am finding no fault with you. It is all quite right,” she continued, as she saw the strange look of terror and surprise visible on Maddy’s face. “The past is right, but in future it will be a little different. I am willing to accord to a governess all the privileges possible. They are human as well as myself, but society makes a difference. Don’t you know it does?”
“Yes—no—I don’t know. Oh, pray tell me what you mean, what I am to do!” Maddy gasped her face white as ashes, and her eyes wearing as yet only a scared, uncertain look.
With little, graceful tosses of the head, which set in motion every one of the brown curls, Mrs. Agnes replied: