Hardyman answered, in the quiet melancholy monotone which was habitual
with him, "Your Ladyship need feel no further anxiety about the dog.
Only be careful not to overfeed him. He will do very well under Miss
Isabel's care. By the bye, her family name is Miller--is it not? Is she
related to the Warwickshire Millers of Duxborough House?"

Lady Lydiard looked at him with an expression of satirical surprise.
"Mr. Hardyman," she said, "this makes the fourth time you have
questioned me about Isabel. You seem to take a great interest in my
little companion. Don't make any apologies, pray! You pay Isabel a
compliment, and, as I am very fond of her, I am naturally gratified when
I find her admired. At the same time," she added, with one of her abrupt
transitions of language, "I had my eye on you, and I had my eye on her,
when you were talking in the next room; and I don't mean to let you make
a fool of the girl. She is not in your line of life, and the sooner you
know it the better. You make me laugh when you ask if she is related to
gentlefolks. She is the orphan daughter of a chemist in the country. Her
relations haven't a penny to bless themselves with, except an old aunt,
who lives in a village on two or three hundred a year. I heard of the
girl by accident. When she lost her father and mother, her aunt offered
to take her. Isabel said, 'No, thank you; I will not be a burden on
a relation who has only enough for herself. A girl can earn an honest
living if she tries; and I mean to try'--that's what she said. I admired
her independence," her Ladyship proceeded, ascending again to the higher
regions of thought and expression. "My niece's marriage, just at that
time, had left me alone in this great house. I proposed to Isabel to
come to me as companion and reader for a few weeks, and to decide for
herself whether she liked the life or not. We have never been separated
since that time. I could hardly be fonder of her if she were my own