tell you more.  Mr. Higgins is rich, and I can’t say he’s unkind to me; he’ll give me as much as I want; but I’m sure he’ll be very glad to get me out of the house.  I have no money of my own—­worse luck!  Well, we thought it best for me to come alone, first, and see—­just to see, you know—­whether we were likely to suit each other.  Then mother will come and tell you all she has to say about me.  Of course I know what it’ll be.  They all say I’ve a horrible temper.  I don’t think so myself; and I’m sure I don’t think I should quarrel with you, you look so nice.  But I can’t get on at home, and it’s better for all that we should part.  I’m just two-and-twenty—­do I look older?  I haven’t learnt to do anything, and I suppose I shall never need to.’

‘Do you wish to see much society?’ inquired Mrs. Mumford, who was thinking rapidly, ’or should you prefer a few really nice people?  I’m afraid I don’t quite understand yet whether you want society of the pleasure-seeking kind, or—­’

She left the alternative vague.  Miss Derrick again reflected for a moment before abruptly declaring herself.

’I feel sure that your friends are the kind I want to know.  At all events, I should like to try.  The great thing is to get away from home and see how things look.’

They laughed together.  Emmeline, after a little more talk, offered to take her visitor over the house, and Miss Derrick had loud praise for everything she saw.

‘What I like about you,’ she exclaimed of a sudden, as they stood looking from a bedroom window on to the garden, ’is that you don’t put on any—­you know what I mean.  People seem to me to be generally either low and ignorant, or so high and mighty there’s no getting on with them at all.  You’re just what I wanted to find.  Now I must go and send mother to see you.’

Emmeline protested against this awkward proceeding.  Why should not both come together and have a cup of tea?  If it were desired, Miss Derrick could step into the garden whilst her mother said whatever she wished to say.  The girl assented, and in excellent spirits betook herself to the railway station.  Emmeline waited something less than a quarter of an hour; then a hansom drove up, and Mrs. Higgins, after a deliberate surveyal of the house front, followed her daughter up the pathway.

The first sight of the portly lady made the situation clearer to Mrs. Mumford.  Louise Derrick represented a certain stage of civilisation, a degree of conscious striving for better things; Mrs. Higgins was prosperous and self-satisfied vulgarity.  Of a complexion much lighter than the girl’s, she still possessed a coarse comeliness, which pointed back to the dairymaid type of damsel.  Her features revealed at the same time a kindly nature and an irascible tendency.  Monstrously overdressed, and weighted with costly gewgaws, she came forward panting and perspiring, and, before paying any heed to her hostess, closely surveyed the room.