Her voice failed
her, in the effort to speak. Iris considerately went on.
"You will take the place," she said, "of a maid who has been with me
for years--a good dear creature who has only left me through
ill-health. I must not expect too much of you; I cannot hope that you
will be to me what Rhoda Bennet has been."
Fanny succeeded in controlling herself. "Is there any hope," she asked,
"of my seeing Rhoda Bennet?"
"Why do you wish to see her?"
"You are fond of her, Miss---that is one reason."
"And the other?"
"Rhoda Bennet might help me to serve you as I want to serve you; she
might perhaps encourage me to try if I could follow her example." Fanny
paused, and clasped her hands fervently. The thought that was in her
forced its way to expression. "It's so easy to feel grateful," she
said--"and, oh, so hard to show it!"
"Come to me," her new mistress answered, "and show it to-morrow."
Moved by that compassionate impulse, Iris said the words which restored
to an unfortunate creature a lost character and a forfeited place in
the world.
CHAPTER XV
MR. HENLEY'S TEMPER
PROVIDED by nature with ironclad constitutional defences against
illness, Mr. Henley was now and then troubled with groundless doubts of
his own state of health.
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