entirely; but happily Mrs. Carteret and the governess did think of this
danger, and showed some skill in laying the phantom. Some photographs of
John Dexter as a young man were brought out and shown to the governess
in Molly's presence, and her comments on the likeness to Molly were true
and sounded spontaneous. Relieved of this horror the girl's mind reacted
to the hope that Mrs. Carteret had only spoken in temper and spite,
grossly exaggerating some grievance against Molly's mother. Then was the
ideal restored to its pedestal, and expiatory offerings of sentiment of
the most elaborate kind hung round the image of the ill-used and
misunderstood, the beautiful, unattainable mother. If Miss Carew had
seen into the reveries of her pupil at such a moment, she would hardly
have believed how they alternated with the coldest fits of doubt and
scepticism. Molly was dealing with a self-made ideal that she needed to
satisfy the hunger of her nature for love and worship. But it had no
foundations, no support, and it was apt to vanish with a terrible
completeness. Then she would feel quite alone and horribly ashamed; she
would at moments think of herself as something degraded and to be
shunned. Some natures would have simply sunk into a nervous state of
depression, but Molly had great vitality and natural ambition. In her
ideal moments she thought of devoting her life to her mother; and the
ayah's words were still a text, "The faithful child will find a way."
But in darker hours she defied the world that was against her.

Molly, having decided to make no effort at any change in her life until
the emancipating age of twenty-one, determined to prepare herself as
fully as possible for the future. Mrs. Carteret was quite willing to
keep Miss Carew until her niece was nearly twenty, and by that time the
girl had read a surprising amount, while her mind was not to be
despised. She had also "come out" as far as a very sleepy neighbourhood
made it possible for her to see any society. She had been to three