frostily fierce, and with a bearing furiously formal. "I have a letter to
Miss Milray that my busband wished me to write for you, and give you with
his compliments."

"Thank you," said Clementina. She rose mechanically to her feet, and at
the same time Mrs. Milray sat down.

"You will find Miss Milray," she continued, with the same glacial
hauteur, "a very agreeable and cultivated lady."

Clementina said nothing; and Mrs. Milray added,

"And I hope she may have the happiness of being more useful to you than I
have."

"What do you mean, Mrs. Milray?" Clementina asked with unexpected spirit
and courage.

"I mean simply this, that I have not succeeded in putting you on your
guard against your love of admiration--especially the admiration of
gentlemen. A young girl can't be too careful how she accepts the
attentions of gentlemen, and if she seems to invite them--"

"Mrs. Milray!" cried Clementina. "How can you say such a thing to me?"

"How? I shall have to be plain with you, I see. Perhaps I have not
considered that, after all, you know nothing about life and are not to
blame for things that a person born and bred in the world would
understand from childhood. If you don't know already, I can tell you that
the way you have behaved with Lord Lioncourt during the last two or three