When Mrs. Agnes had finished this, Maddy began to understand her

position, and into her white face the hot blood poured indignantly.

Wholly inexperienced, she had never dreamed that a governess was not

worthy to sit at the same table with her employer, that she must never

enter the parlors unbidden, or intrude herself in any way. No wonder

that her cheeks burned at the degradation, or that, for an instant,

she felt like defying the proud woman to her face. But the angry words

trembling on her tongue were repressed as she remembered her

grandfather's teachings; and with a bow as haughty as any Mrs. Agnes

could have made, and a look on her face which could not easily be

forgotten, she left the room, and in a kind of stunned bewilderment

sought the garden, where she could, unseen, give way to her feelings.

Once alone, the torrent burst forth, and burying her face in the soft

grass, she wept bitterly, never hearing the step coming near, and not

at first heeding the voice which asked what was the matter. Guy

Remington, too, had come out into the garden, accidentally wandering

that way, and so stumbling upon the little figure crying in the grass.

He knew it was Maddy, and greatly surprised to find her thus, asked

what was the matter. Then, as she did not hear him, he laid his hand

gently upon her shoulder, compelling her to look up. In all her

imaginings of Guy, she had never associated him with the man who had

so puzzled and confused her, and now she did not for a time suspect

the truth. She only thought him a guest at Aikenside; some one come

with Guy, and her degradation seemed greater than before. She was not

surprised when he called her by name; of course he remembered her,

just as she did him; but she did wonder a little what Mrs. Agnes would

say, could she know how kindly he spoke to her, lifting her from the

grass and leading her to a rustic seat at no great distance from them.

"Now, tell me why you are crying so?" he said, brushing from her silk

apron the spot of dirt which had settled upon it. "Are you homesick?"

he continued, and then Maddy burst out again.

She forgot that he was a stranger, forgot everything except that he

sympathized with her.

"Oh, sir," she sobbed, "I was so happy here till they came home, Mrs.

Remington and Mr. Guy. I never thought it was a disgrace to be a

governess; never heard it was so considered, or that I was not good

enough to eat with them till she told me this. Oh, dear, dear!" and

choked with tears Maddy stopped a moment to take breath.




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