Her mistress
would be, of course, an exception to this rule. But even Miss Henley
would perhaps do well not to excite the girl by prolonging her visit.
There was one other suggestion which he would venture to make, while he
had the opportunity. Rhoda was not, as he thought, warmly enough
clothed for the time of year; and a bad cold might be easily caught by
a person in her condition.
Iris entered the farm-house; leaving Fanny Mere, after what the doctor
had said on the subject of visitors, to wait for her in the carriage.
After an absence of barely ten minutes Miss Henley returned; personally
changed, not at all to her own advantage, by the introduction of a
novelty in her dress. She had gone into the farmhouse, wearing a
handsome mantle of sealskin. When she came out again, the mantle had
vanished, and there appeared in its place a common cloak of
drab-coloured cloth. Noticing the expression of blank amazement in the
maid's face, Iris burst out laughing.
"How do you think I look in my new cloak?" she asked.
Fanny saw nothing to laugh at in the sacrifice of a sealskin mantle. "I
must not presume, Miss, to give an opinion," she said gravely.
"At any rate," Iris continued, "you must be more than mortal if my
change of costume doesn't excite your curiosity.
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