Chapter 30 - Page 2

sharply. "I
did not question her about her affairs, of course. She gave me that
information quite spontaneously. I can't remember what it was that
brought the subject up." Here he paused to reflect, remarking mentally,
"This fellow is teaching me to be as great a liar as he is himself." Then
he continued--"Ah, yes, I remember now; we were talking about books, and
I asked her why she had not read all the popular novels I mentioned, and
then she explained her position."

"Then," said Merton, transferring his resentment to Fan, "I think it
would have shown better taste if she had been a little more reticent with
a stranger about her private affairs; more especially with one she has
met in my house. For she knows that she took to this life against our
wishes and advice, and that by so doing she has placed a great distance
between herself and Mrs. Chance."

"Perhaps you are right. It is certainly a rare thing in England to see a
young lady in Miss Affleck's position so well suited in appearance and
manner to mix with those who are better placed."

"Quite so. She was never intended for her present station in life. And
since you know what you do know about her through her own want of
discretion, you must let me explain how she comes to be a visitor in my
house, and received as a friend by my wife. My wife's father, a retired
barrister living on a small and not very productive estate of his own in
Wiltshire, consented to receive Miss Affleck to reside for a year in his
house, and during that time my wife gave her instruction. Unhappily the
lady who had made Miss Affleck her _protégée,_ and who happens to be
an extremely crotchety and violent-tempered woman, so full of fads and
fancies that she is more suited to be in a lunatic asylum than at large--"

"Old, I suppose?" remarked Eden, amused at this sudden flow of talk.

"Old? Well, yes; getting on, I should say. One of those bewigged and
painted wretches that hate to be thought over forty. Well, for some
unexplained reason,--probably because Miss Affleck was young and pretty
and attracted too much admiration--she quarrelled with the poor girl and
cast her off. It was a barbarous thing to do, and we would gladly have
given her a home, and my wife's mother also offered to help her. But as
she wished not to be dependent, Mrs. Chance was anxious to get her a
place as governess or school-teacher. The girl, however, who is strangely
obstinate, would not be persuaded, and eventually got this situation for
herself. This explains what you have heard, and what must have surprised
you very much. Out of pity for the girl, who had been hardly treated, and
because of my wife's