"How glad she must be to come back to anyone who loves her so,"
said Robin.
Here was a quilted basket with three Persian kittens purring in
it, and she knelt and stroked their fluffiness, bending her slim
neck and showing how prettily the dark hair grew up from it. It was,
perhaps, that at which Lady Etynge was looking as she stood behind
her and watched her. The girl-nymph slenderness and flexibility
of her leaning body was almost touchingly lovely.
There were several other rooms and each one was, in its way, more
charming than the other. A library in Dresden blue and white, and
with peculiarly pretty windows struck the last note of cosiness.
All the rooms had pretty windows with rather small square panes
enclosed in white frames.
It was when she was in this room that Robin took her courage in
her hands. She must not let her chance go by. Lady Etynge was so
kind. She wondered if it would seem gauche and too informal to
speak now.
She stood quite upright and still, though her voice was not quite
steady when she began.
"Lady Etynge," she said, "you remember what Fraulein Hirsch said
about girls who wish to support themselves? I--I am one of them.
I want very much to earn my own living. I think I am well educated.
I have been allowed to read a good deal and my teachers, Mademoiselle
Valle and Fraulein Hirsch, say I speak and write French and German
well for an English girl.
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