"You shall have as much money as you please, and welcome. But not to take you to Nulle."
"Oh, sir! I must go."
He paused, looking at me. "Will you tell me why you want to go there, knowing that it might be dangerous?"
"I have not anywhere else to go to. I don't suppose the fever would come near me. In all French schools there is, you know, an infirmary apart."
"Then your motive is to quit Chandos. Why?"
I did not speak. Only hung my head.
"Is it because you find it dull? Are you so unhappy in it?"
"It is not dull to me; only at moments. But I ought to leave it, because—because the longer I stay, the worse the going away will be."
But that I was confused and miserable, I should not have told him anything so near the truth. The words slipped from me. There was no reply, and I looked up to find his eyes fixed earnestly upon mine.
"Only think, sir, for yourself," I stammered. "I am but a governess, accustomed to be at work from morning until night. After this life of ease and idleness, how shall I be able to reconcile myself to labour again?"