is only one way out of this difficulty. I must leave this house as soon as
I can persuade her to let me go.'

The door opened; involuntarily the speakers moved apart; and though their
faces and attitudes were strictly composed when Emily entered, she knew
they had been standing closer together.

'I'm afraid I'm interrupting you,' she said.

'No, Emily; pray do not go away. We were only talking about you.'

'If I were to leave every time you begin to talk about me, I should spend
my life in my room. I daresay you have many faults to find. Let me hear all
about your fresh discoveries.'

It was a thin November day: leaves were whirling on the lawn, and at that
moment one blew rustling down the window-pane. And, even as it, she seemed
a passing thing. Her face was like a plate of fine white porcelain, and the
deep eyes filled it with a strange and magnetic pathos; the abundant
chestnut hair hung in the precarious support of a thin tortoiseshell; and
there was something unforgetable in the manner in which her aversion for
the elder woman betrayed itself--a mere nothing, and yet more impressive
than any more obvious and therefore more vulgar expression of dislike would
have been.

'A little patience, Emily. You will not have me here much longer.'

'I suppose that I am so disagreeable that you cannot live with me. Why
should you go away?'