Her ladyship wore long earrings of filigree gold. Round her neck was a
massive gold chain. On her fingers sparkled several rings of
price--diamonds, rubies and opals. In figure her ladyship was tall, and
upright as a dart. She was, however, slightly lame of one foot, which
necessitated the use of a cane when walking. Lady Chillington's cane was
ivory-headed, and had a gold plate let into it, on which was engraved
her crest and initials. She was seated in an elaborately-carved
high-backed chair, near a table on which were the remains of a dessert
for one person.

The Green Saloon was a large gloomy room; at least it looked gloomy as I
saw it for the first time, lighted up by four wax candles where twenty
were needed. These four candles being placed close by where Lady
Chillington was sitting, left the other end of the saloon in comparative
darkness. The furniture was heavy, formal and old-fashioned. Gloomy
portraits of dead and gone Chillingtons lined the green walls, and this
might be the reason why there always seemed to me a slight graveyard
flavour--scarcely perceptible, but none the less surely there--about
this room which caused me to shudder involuntarily whenever I crossed
its threshold.

Lady Chillington's black eyes--large, cold and steady as Juno's own--had
been bent upon me all this time, measuring me from head to foot with
what I felt to be a slightly contemptuous scrutiny.

"What is your name, and how old are you?" she asked, with startling
abruptness, after a minute or two of silence.

"Janet Hope, and twelve years," I answered, laconically. A feeling of
defiance, of dislike to this bedizened old woman began to gnaw my
child's heart. Young as I was, I had learned, with what bitterness I
alone could have told, the art of wrapping myself round with a husk of
cold reserve, which no one uninitiated in the ways of children could
penetrate, unless I were inclined to let them. Sulkiness was the
generic name for this quality at school, but I dignified it with a
different term.

"How many years were you at Park Hill Seminary? and where did you live
before you went there?" asked Lady Chillington.

"I have lived at Park Hill ever since I can remember anything. I don't
know where I lived before that time."

"Are your parents alive or dead? If the latter, what do you remember of
them?"

A lump came into my throat, and tears into my eyes. For a moment or two
I could not answer.

"I don't know anything abo