get half maddened
by persecution? If they do, I think I must have been one of those girls.
I refused to beg pardon; and I was dismissed from my situation without a
character. Will you think me very foolish? I shut my eyes again, when
I woke in my delicious bed to-day. I was afraid that the room, and
everything in it, was a dream." She looked round, and started to her
feet. "Oh, here's a lady! Shall I go away?"

The curtains hanging over the entrance to the library were opened for
the second time. With composure and dignity, the lady who had startled
Sydney entered the room.

"Have you been reading in the library?" Mrs. Linley asked. And Mrs.
Presty answered: "No, Catherine; I have been listening."

Mrs. Linley looked at her mother; her lovely complexion reddened with a
deep blush.

"Introduce me to Miss Westerfield," Mrs. Presty proceeded, as coolly as
ever.

Mrs. Linley showed some hesitation. What would the governess think of
her mother? Perfectly careless of what the governess might think, Mrs.
Presty crossed the room and introduced herself.

"Miss Westerfield, I am Mrs. Linley's mother. And I am, in one respect,
a remarkable person. When I form an opinion and find it's the opinion of
a fool, I am not in the least ashamed to change my mind. I have changed
my mind about you. Shake hands."

Sydney respectfully obeyed.

"Sit down again." Sydney returned to her chair.

"I had the worst possible opinion of you," Mrs. Presty resumed, "before
I had the pleasure of listening on the other side of the curtain. It has
been my good fortune--what's your Christian name? Did I hear it? or have
I forgotten it? 'Sydney,' eh? Very well. I was about to say, Sydney,
that it has been my good fortune to be intimately associated, in early
life, with two remarkable characters. Husbands of mine, in short,
whose influence over me has, I am proud to say, set death and burial at
defiance. Between them they have made my mind the mind of a man. I judge
for myself. The opinions of others (when they don't happen to agree with
mine) I regard as chaff to be scattered to the winds. No, Catherine, I
am not wandering. I am pointing out to a young person, who has her way
to make in the world, the vast importance, on certain occasions, of
possessing an independent mind. If I had been ashamed to listen behind
those curtains, there is no injury that my stupid prejudices might not
have inflicted on this unfortunate girl. As it is, I have heard her