Shall I tell you
what Honour means? It means sticking at nothing, in your service.
Please tell me to open the letter."
"How did you come by the letter, Fanny?"
"My master gave it to me to put in the post."
"Then, post it."
The strange creature, so full of contraries--so sensitive at one time,
so impenetrable at another--pointed again to the address.
"When the master writes to that man," she went on--"a long letter (if
you will notice), and a sealed letter--your ladyship ought to see what
is inside it. I haven't a doubt myself that there's writing under this
seal which bodes trouble to you. The spare bedroom is empty. Do you
want to have the doctor for your visitor again? Don't tell me to post
the letter, till I've opened it first."
"I do tell you to post the letter."
Fanny submitted, so far. But she had a new form of persuasion to try,
before her reserves of resistance were exhausted. "If the doctor comes
back," she continued, "will your ladyship give me leave to go out,
whenever I ask for it?"
This was surely presuming on my indulgence. "Are you not expecting a
little too much?" I suggested--not unkindly.
"If you say that, my lady," she answered, "I shall be obliged to ask
you to suit yourself with another maid.
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