"What is it?" questioned Mr. Preen.
Charles hesitated. "I had thought you were alone, sir."
"All the same. Say what you want."
"I have taken the liberty of coming to speak to you on a private matter, sir; but——" There he stopped.
"What is it?" repeated Mr. Preen.
"When I was in this room to-day, sir, I heard you say that your little girls were in want of a governess."
"Well?"
"What I am about to say may seem nothing but presumption—but my sister is seeking just such a situation. If you—if Mrs. Preen—would only see her!"
"Your sister?" returned the lawyer; with, Charles thought, chilling surprise. It damped him: made him feel sensitively small.
"Oh, pray do not judge of my sister by me, sir!—I mean by the position I occupy here," cried Charles, all his prearranged speeches forgotten, and speaking straight from his wounded feelings, his full heart. "You only know me as a young man working for his daily bread, and very poor. But indeed we are gentlepeople: not only by birth and education, but in mind and habits. I was copying a deed to-day: the lease of a farm on the estate of Eagles' Nest. Do you know it, sir?"