"Well, you have chosen a wet day to pay us a visit, Miss Hilton," she
said, with a hospitality too effusive to be spontaneous.

She was a very attractive girl, with fair hair and pretty eyes, made for
affection and to take a spoiling prettily. At present she had no
misgiving about her lover's good intentions, and this gave her the
confidence which naturally she lacked. Besides, she had never thought
Anne Hilton important. Anne, seeing the handsome room, the gaiety of
Jane, and affection of Burton, found herself wishing that there were no
reason why it should not continue so, to all appearance a happy home of
newly-married people. She saw none of the signs of shame in Jane which
she herself had suffered.

"I've not just come to pay you a visit, Jane, my dear," she said. "I've
come in the place of your grandmother who's dead, to take you away with
me."

"Whatever for?" exclaimed Burton, loudly. "Do you think I can't make her
comfortable? She's never been so happy in her life, have you, Jane?"

"No!" returned Jane, very red. "And I don't see what Miss Hilton's got
to do with it anyway."

"No more don't I," returned Burton, with a laugh. "But let's hear what
she's got to say about it. So you want Jane to go back to starving at
dressmaking, Miss Hilton? She's a lot more comfortable here, I can tell
you. She's got a servant, and she can have her dresses made out. She's
no need to do anything but fancy work."