He wondered at his own fastidiousness.
"I am like a child with a new toy," he thought, almost ashamed of the
intense interest he felt in this unknown girl.
At last he found an establishment that pleased him; a noble old mansion
at Fulham, surrounded by splendid grounds, and presided over by two
maiden sisters. It was a thoroughly aristocratic seminary, and the
ladies who kept it knew how to charge for the advantages of their
establishment. Sir Oswald assented immediately to the Misses Beaumonts'
terms, and promised to bring the expected pupil in less than a week's
time.
"The young lady is a relation, I presume, Sir Oswald?" said the elder
Miss Beaumont.
"Yes," answered the baronet; "she is--a distant relative."
If he had not been standing with his back to the light, the two ladies
might have seen a dusky flush suffuse his face as he pronounced these
words. Never before had he told so deliberate a falsehood. But he had
feared to tell the truth.
"They will never guess her secret from her manner," he thought; "and if
they question her, she will know how to baffle their curiosity."
On the very day that ended the stipulated week, Honoria Milford made
her appearance in Arlington Street. Sir Oswald was in his library,
seated in an easy-chair before the fire-place, with a book in his hand,
but with no power to concentrate his attention to its pages.
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