m was not of the white-gleaming kind to which she was
accustomed. The walls were papered, not tiled, and the bath itself was
of japanned tin, framed in mahogany. These things, on the evening of
her arrival at the Warden's, had rather distressed her. But she was the
better able to bear them because of that well-remembered past when a
bath-room was in itself a luxury pined for--days when a not-large and
not-full can of not-hot water, slammed down at her bedroom door by a
governess-resenting housemaid, was as much as the gods allowed her. And
there was, to dulcify for her the bath of this evening, the yet sharper
contrast with the plight she had just come home in, sopped, shivering,
clung to by her clothes. Because this bath was not a mere luxury, but a
necessary precaution, a sure means of salvation from chill, she did the
more gratefully bask in it, till Melisande came back to her, laden with
warmed towels.

A few minutes before eight o'clock she was fully ready to go down to
dinner, with even more than the usual glow of health, and hungry beyond
her wont.

Yet, as she went down, her heart somewhat misgave her. Indeed, by force
of the wide experience she had had as a governess, she never did feel
quite at her ease when she was staying in a private house: the fear of
not giving satisfaction haunted her; she was always on her guard; the
shadow of dismissal absurdly hovered. And to-night she could not tell
herself, as she usually did, not to be so silly. If her grandfather knew
already the motive by which those young men had been actuated, dinner
with him might be a rather strained affair. He might tell her, in so
many words, that he wished he had not invited her to Oxford.

Through the open door of the drawing room she saw him, standing
majestic, draped in a voluminous black gown. Her instinct was to run
away; but this she conquered. She went straight in, remembering not to
smile.

"Ah, ah," said the Warden, shaking a forefinger at her with old-world
playfulness. "And what have you to say for yourself?"

Relieved, she was also a trifle shocked. Was it possible that he, a
responsible old man, could take things so lightly?

"Oh, grand-papa," she answered, hanging her head, "what CAN I say? It
is--it is too, too, dreadful."

"There, there, my dear. I was but jesting. If you have had an agreeable
time, you are forgiven for playing truant. Where have you been all day?"

She saw that she had misjudged him. "I have just