"who went to India with his regiment a few years ago, and died there."
What Miss West had said to her was this: "My father, a clergyman, died
when I was a little child, and my uncle William, Colonel West, the only
relation I had left, died three years ago in India." Mrs. Moffit somehow
confounded the two.

This might not have mattered on the whole. But, as you perceive, it
conveyed a wrong impression at Leet Hall.

"The governess I have engaged is a Miss West; her father was a military
man and a gentleman," spake Mrs. Carradyne one morning at breakfast to
Captain Monk. "She is rather young--about twenty, I fancy; but an older
person might never get on at all with Kate."

"Had good references with her, I suppose?" said the Captain.

"Oh, yes. From the agent, and especially from the ladies who have
brought her up."

"Who was her father, do you say?--a military man?"

"Colonel William West," assented Mrs. Carradyne, referring to the letter
she held. "He went to India with his regiment and died there."

"I'll refer to the army-list," said the Captain; "daresay it's all
right. And she shall keep Kate in order, or I'll know the reason why."

* * * * *

The evening sunlight lay on the green plain, on the white fields from