Chapter 19

Mademoiselle Valle and Dowson together realized that after this
the growing up process was more rapid. It always seems incredibly
rapid to lookers on, after thirteen. But these two watchers felt
that, in Robin's case, it seemed unusually so. Robin had always
been interested in her studies and clever at them, but, suddenly,
she developed a new concentration and it was of an order which her
governess felt denoted the secret holding of some object in view.
She devoted herself to her lessons with a quality of determination
which was new. She had previously been absorbed, but not determined.
She made amazing strides and seemed to aspire to a thoroughness
and perfection girls did not commonly aim at--especially at the
frequently rather preoccupied hour of blossoming. Mademoiselle
encountered in her an eagerness that she--who knew girls--would
have felt it optimistic to expect in most cases. She wanted to
work over hours; she would have read too much if she had not been
watched and gently coerced.

She was not distracted by the society of young people of her own age.
She, indeed, showed a definite desire to avoid such companionship.
What she said to Mademoiselle Valle one afternoon during a long walk
they took together, held its own revelation for the older woman.

They had come upon the two Erwyns walking with their attendant
in Kensington Gardens, and, seeing them at some distance, Robin
asked her companion to turn into another walk.

"I don't want to meet them," she said, hurriedly. "I don't think I
like girls. Perhaps it's horrid of me--but I don't. I don't like
those two." A few minutes later, after they had walked in an opposite
direction, she said thoughtfully.

"Perhaps the kind of girls I should like to know would not like to
know me."

From the earliest days of her knowledge of Lord Coombe, Mademoiselle
Valle had seen that she had no cause to fear lack of comprehension
on his part. With a perfection of method, they searched each other's
intelligence. It had become understood that on such occasions as
there was anything she wished to communicate or inquire concerning,
Mr. Benby, in his private room, was at Mademoiselle's service, and
there his lordship could also be met personally by appointment.

"There have been no explanations," Mademoiselle Valle said to
Dowson. "He does not ask to know why I turn to him and I do not
ask to know why he cares about this particular child. It is taken
for granted that is his affair and not mine. I am paid well to
take care of Robin, and he knows that all I say and do is part of
my taking care of her."

After the visit of the Erwyn children, she had a brief interview
with Coombe,