"
"Not necessarily. Tell me, frankly: how had you proposed to exert
yourself? As a teacher, was it not?"
Alice flushed, but assented.
"You are not at all fitted for it; and you will end by marrying. As
a teacher you could not marry well. As an idle lady, with expensive
habits, you will marry very well indeed. It is quite an art to know
how to be rich--an indispensable art, if you mean to marry a rich
man."
"I have no intention of marrying," said Alice, loftily. She thought
it time to check this cool aristocrat. "If I come at all I shall
come without any ulterior object."
"That is just what I had hoped. Come without condition, or second
thought of any kind."
"But--" began Alice, and stopped, bewildered by the pace at which
the negotiation was proceeding. She murmured a few words, and waited
for Lydia to proceed. But Lydia had said her say, and evidently
expected a reply, though she seemed assured of having her own way,
whatever Alice's views might be.
"I do not quite understand, Miss Carew. What duties?--what would you
expect of me?"
"A great deal," said Lydia, gravely. "Much more than I should from a
mere professional companion."
"But I am a professional companion," protested Alice.
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