"I shall go and hear what Jan says, if he is there," she remarked to Lionel.
"I wonder we did not see or hear him come in," was Lionel's answer.
"As if Jan could come into the house like a gentleman!" returned Lady Verner, with intense acrimony.

"The back way is a step or two nearer, and therefore he patronises it." She quitted the room as she spoke, and Lionel turned to Miss Tempest.

He had been exceedingly amused and edified at the conversation between her and his mother; but while Lady Verner had been inclined to groan over it, he had rejoiced.

That Lucy Tempest was thoroughly and genuinely unsophisticated; that she was of a nature too sincere and honest for her manners to be otherwise than of truthful simplicity, he was certain.

A delightful child, he thought; one he could have taken to his heart and loved as a sister.