"I did tell Lady Temple," said Alison; "I never think it right not to

let people know what sort of person they have to teach their children."

And Grace, on feeling her way, discovered that Lady Temple had been told

the bare fact in Miss Williams's reserved and business-like manner, but

with nothing of the affair that had led to it. She merely looked on it

in the manner fully expressed by--"Ah, poor thing; how sad for her!"

as a shocking secret, never to be talked of or thought about. And that

voluntary detailed relation from Alison could only be regarded as drawn

forth by Grace's own individual power of winning confidence, and the

friendliness that had so long subsisted between them. Nor indeed was the

reserve regarding the cause of the present reduced circumstances of the

sisters at all lessened; it was only known that their brother had ruined

them by a fraudulent speculation, and had then fled to the Continent,

leaving them burthened with the maintenance of his child, but that they

refused to believe in his guilt, and had thus incurred the displeasure

of other relatives and friends. Alison was utterly silent about him.

Ermine seemed to have a tender pleasure in bringing in a reference to

his ways as if all were well, and it were a matter of course to speak of

"Edward;" but it was plain that Ermine's was an outspoken nature. This

might, however, be only because the one had been a guarded, sheltered

invalid, while the other had gone forth among strangers to battle for

a livelihood, and moreover, the elder sister had been fully grown and

developed before the shock which had come on the still unformed Alison.

At any rate, nobody but Grace "got on" with the governess, while the

invalid made friends with all who visited her, and most signally with

Rachel, who, ere long, esteemed her environment a good work, worthy of

herself. The charity of sitting with a twaddling, muffatee-knitting old

lady was indisputable, but it was perfectly within Grace's capacity; and

Rachel believed herself to be far more capable of entertaining the sick

Miss Williams, nor was she mistaken. When excited or interested, most

people thought her oppressive; but Ermine Williams, except when unwell,

did not find her so, and even then a sharp debate was sometimes a cure

for the nervous ailments induced by the monotony of her life. They

seemed to have a sort of natural desire to rub their minds one against

the other, and Rachel could not rest without Miss Williams's opinion of

all that interested her--paper, essay, book, or event; but often, when

expecting to confer a favour by the loan, she found that what was new

to her was already well known in that little parlour, and even the

authorship no mystery. Ermine explained this by her correspondence with

literary friends of her brother's, and country-bred Rachel, to whom

literature was still an oracle unconnected with living agencies,

listened, yes, absolutely listened to her anecdotes of sayings and

doings, far more like clever memoirs than the experiences of the banks

of the Avon. Perhaps there was this immediate disadvantage, that hearing

of a more intellectual tone of society tended to make Rachel less

tolerant of that which surrounded her, and especially of Mr. Touchett.

It was droll that, having so long shunned the two sisters under the

impression that they were his protegees and worshippers, she found that

Ermine's point of view was quite the rectorial one, and that to venerate

the man for his office sake was nearly as hard to Ermine as to herself,

though the office was more esteemed.




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