"You have now given me all the information I require, so I need detain you no longer--save to say this .-- You will, if you please, consider your engagement as my daughter's companion terminated, concluded from to-night.

You are free to make such arrangements as may suit you; and you will, I trust, pardon my adding that I shall be obliged by your making them without undue delay." "You do not mean," Theresa broke out, after an interval of speechless amazement--"Sir Charles, you cannot mean that you dismiss me--that I am to leave The Hard--to--to go away ?" "I mean that I have no further occasion for your services." Theresa waved her arms as though playing some eccentric game of ball.
"You forget the servants, the conduct of the house, Damaris' need of a chaperon, her still unfinished education--All are dependent upon me." "Hardly dependent," he answered.

"These things, I have reason to think, can safely be trusted to other hands, or be equally safely be left to take care of themselves." "But why do you repudiate me ?" she cried again, rushing upon her fate in the bitterness of her distraction.

"What have I done to deserve such harshness and humiliation ?" "I gave the most precious of my possessions--Damaris--into your keeping, and--and--well--we see the result.

Is it not written large enough, in all conscience, for the most illiterate to read ?--So you must depart, my dear Miss Bilson, and for everyone's sake, the sooner the better.