"Who is she, Arthur?"
"She is Mrs. Cumberland's ward."
"What do you know of her?"
"I know her as being at Mrs. Cumberland's. I see her when I go there."
Was he really indifferent? Standing there brushing away at his hair lazily, his apparently supreme indifference could not be exceeded. Madam scanned his face in momentary silence; he was closely intent upon two sparrows, fighting over a reddening cherry on the branch of a tree.
"Fight away, young gentlemen; battle it out; you'll have all the better appetite for supper."
"Will you attend to me for a short time, Captain Bohun?" spoke madam, irritably.
"Certainly; I am attending," was the captain's ready answer.
Just for an instant madam paused. This was not one of the daily petty grievances that she made people miserable over, but a trouble to her of awful meaning, almost as of life or death. In this, her own grave interests, she could control her temper, and she thought it might be the better policy to do so whilst she dealt with it.
"Arthur, you know that you are becoming more valuable to me," she said, with calmness; and Arthur Bohun opened his surprised ears at the words and tone. "Since Sidney took up his abode away from England, and cannot come back to it, poor fellow, for the present you are all I have here. If I speak, it is for your welfare."