The pupils of the drawing-class put away their pencils and color-boxes in high good humor:the teacher's vigilant eye for faults had failed him for the first time in their experience.Not one of them had been reproved;they had chattered and giggled and drawn caricatures on the margin of the paper,as freely as if the master had left the room.Alban's wandering attention was indeed beyond the reach of control.His interview with Francine had doubled his sense of responsibility toward Emily--while he was further than ever from seeing how he could interfere,to any useful purpose,in his present position,and with his reasons for writing under reserve.
One of the servants addressed him as he was leaving the schoolroom.The landlady's boy was waiting in the hall,with a message from his lodgings.
"Now then!what is it?"he asked,irritably.
"The lady wants you,sir."With this mysterious answer,the boy presented a visiting card.The name inscribed on it was--"Miss Jethro."She had arrived by the train,and she was then waiting at Alban's lodgings."Say I will be with her directly."Having given the message,he stood for a while,with his hat in his hand--literally lost in astonishment.It was simply impossible to guess at Miss Jethro's object:and yet,with the usual perversity of human nature,he was still wondering what she could possibly want with him,up to the final moment when he opened the door of his sitting-room.
She rose and bowed with the same grace of movement,and the same well-bred composure of manner,which Doctor Allday had noticed when she entered his consulting-room.Her dark melancholy eyes rested on Alban with a look of gentle interest.A faint flush of color animated for a moment the faded beauty of her face--passed away again--and left it paler than before.
"I cannot conceal from myself,"she began,"that I am intruding on you under embarrassing circumstances.""May I ask,Miss Jethro,to what circumstances you allude?""You forget,Mr.Morris,that I left Miss Ladd's school,in a manner which justified doubt of me in the minds of strangers.""Speaking as one of those strangers,"Alban replied,"I cannot feel that I had any right to form an opinion,on a matter which only concerned Miss Ladd and yourself."Miss Jethro bowed gravely."You encourage me to hope,"she said.
"I think you will place a favorable construction on my visit when I mention my motive.I ask you to receive me,in the interests of Miss Emily Brown."Stating her purpose in calling on him in those plain terms,she added to the amazement which Alban already felt,by handing to him--as if she was presenting an introduction--a letter marked,"Private,"addressed to her by Doctor Allday.
"I may tell you,"she premised,"that I had no idea of troubling you,until Doctor Allday suggested it.I wrote to him in the first instance;and there is his reply.Pray read it."The letter was dated,"Penzance";and the doctor wrote,as he spoke,without ceremony.
"MADAM--Your letter has been forwarded to me.I am spending my autumn holiday in the far West of Cornwall.However,if I had been at home,it would have made no difference.I should have begged leave to decline holding any further conversation with you,on the subject of Miss Emily Brown,for the following reasons:
"In the first place,though I cannot doubt your sincere interest in the young lady's welfare,I don't like your mysterious way of showing it.In the second place,when I called at your address in London,after you had left my house,I found that you had taken to flight.I place my own interpretation on this circumstance;but as it is not founded on any knowledge of facts,I merely allude to it,and say no more."Arrived at that point,Alban offered to return the letter."Do you really mean me to go on reading it?"he asked.
"Yes,"she said quietly.
Alban returned to the letter.
"In the third place,I have good reason to believe that you entered Miss Ladd's school as a teacher,under false pretenses.
