nd now. Don't speak!
I know I can trust you. One last word, Amelius, about my lost child. You
doubt whether I should recognize her, if she stood before me now. That
might be quite true, if I had only my own poor hopes and anxieties to
guide me. But I have something else to guide me--and, after what has
passed between us, you may as well know what it is: it might even, by
accident, guide you. Don't alarm yourself; it's nothing distressing this
time. How can I explain it?" she went on; pausing, and speaking in some
perplexity to herself. "It would be easier to show it--and why not?" She
addressed herself to Amelius once more. "I'm a strange creature,"
she resumed. "First, I worry you about my own affairs--then I puzzle
you--then I make you sorry for me--and now (would you think it?) I am
going to amuse you! Amelius, are you an admirer of pretty feet?"

Amelius had heard of men (in books) who had found reason to doubt
whether their own ears were not deceiving them. For the first time, he
began to understand those men, and to sympathize with them. He admitted,
in a certain bewildered way, that he was an admirer of pretty feet--and
waited for what was to come next.

"When a woman has a pretty hand," Mrs. Farnaby proceeded; "she is ready
enough to show it. When she goes out to a ball, she favours you with a
view of her bosom, and a part of her back. Now tell me! If there is no
impropriety in a naked bosom--where is the impropriety in a naked foot?"

Amelius agreed, like a man in a dream.

"Where, indeed!" he remarked--and waited again for what was to come
next.

"Look out of the window," said Mrs. Farnaby.

Amelius obeyed. The window had been opened for a few inches at the
top, no doubt to ventilate the room. The dull view of the courtyard was
varied by the stables at the farther end, and by the kitchen skylight
rising in the middle of the open space. As Amelius looked out, he
observed that some person at that moment in the kitchen required
apparently a large supply of fresh air. The swinging window, on the side
of the skylight which was nearest to him, was invisibly and noiselessly
pulled open from below; the similar window, on the other side, being
already wide open also. Judging by appearance, the inhabitants of the
kitchen possessed a merit which is exceedingly rare among domestic
servants--they understood the laws of ventilation, and appreciated the
blessing of fresh air.

"That will do," said Mrs. Farnaby. "You