“I think so, and I think you are over-sensitive upon that point. I never met a governess before without a recommendation who did not try to pass the circumstance over as lightly as possible,” returned the gentleman, with an amused smile.
“I only desire that you and Mrs. Coolidge should be entirely satisfied,” she said, with proud dignity.
“Miss Douglas,” he said, fixing a keen look upon her face, “I told you, when we first talked this matter over, that I considered it a mere form. I have been fully satisfied from the first that you are a lady, and amply qualified for the position I offer you. Now, if you will assure me that there has been nothing in your life, morally speaking, which would debar you from entering my family, I can rest satisfied, and there will be time enough in the future to write to Mr. Conrad.”
Anything in her life, morally speaking!
A little smile of scorn curled her red lips, and the color leaped again to her very brow; but she lifted her clear, truthful eyes to his, and he was answered, even before she said, with conscious pride:
“There is nothing, there has been nothing in my life which any one could question.”
“I knew it,” he answered; “and now I have a request to make, and that is, that you will allow me to send my carriage for you this evening. There remains only about a day and a half before we sail, and my family would like to become somewhat acquainted with you beforehand.”
Brownie shrank from this ordeal, but she knew it must come sooner or later, and the quicker it was over with the better for all parties.
“Very well, sir,” she answered.
“At what time shall I send for you?”