“It does not seem a long time,” I answered, ” for I have only been in your house a few days.”

” Well, let us not dwell on the time it has taken us to get together.

Now you are here, let that suffice. “

His light eyes surveyed me mockingly, so that I felt awkward and unattractive, and that I stood before a connoisseur of women when even to the uninitiated I was not a very desirable specimen.

” Miss Polgrey gives me good reports of you.”

” That is kind of her.”

” Why should it be kind of her to tell me the truth? I expect that from my employees.”

” I meant that she has been kind to me and that has helped to make this good report possible.”

“I see that you are a woman who does not use the ordinary cliches of conversation but means what she says.”

” I hope so.”

” Good. I have a feeling that we shall get on well together.”

His eyes were taking in each detail of my appearance, I knew. He probably was aware that I had been given a London season and what Aunt Adelaide would call ” every opportunity,” and had failed to acquire a husband. As a connoisseur of women he would know why.

I thought, at least I shall be safe from the attentions which I feel sure be tries to bestow on all attractive women with whom he comes into contact.

” Tell me,” he said, ” how do you find my daughter? Backward for her age?”

” By no means. She is extremely intelligent, but I. find her in need of discipline.”

” I am sure you will be able to supply that lack.”

” I intend to try.”

” Of course. That is why you are here.”

” Please tell me how far I may carry that discipline.”

” You are thinking of corporal punishment?”

” Nothing was farther from my thoughts. I mean, have I your permission to apply my own code? To restrict her liberty, shall we say, if I feel she needs such punishment.”

” Short of murder, Miss Leigh, you have my permission to do what you will. If your methods do not meet with my approval, you will hear.”

” Very well, I understand.”

” If you wish to make any alterations in the … curriculum, I think is the word … you must do so.”

” Thank you.”

” I believe in experiments. If your methods have not made an improvement in say … six months … well, then we could review the situation, could we not?”

His eyes were insolent. I thought: He intends to get rid of me soon.

He was hoping I was a silly, pretty creature not averse to carrying on an intrigue with him while pretending to look after his daughter. Very well, the best thing I can do is to get out of this house.

” I suppose,” he went on, ” we should make excuses for Alvean’s lack of good manners. She lost her mother a year ago.”

I looked into his face for a trace of sorrow. I could find none.

” I had heard that,” I answered.

” Of course you had heard. I’ll swear there were many ready to tell you. It was doubtless a great shock to the child.”

” It must have been a great shock,” I agreed.

” It was sudden.” He was silent for a few seconds and then he continued: ” Poor child, she has no mother. And her father …?” He lifted his shoulders and did not complete his sentence.

” Even so,” I said, ” there are many more unfortunate than she is. All she needs is a firm hand.”

He leaned forward suddenly and surveyed me ironically.

” I am sure,” he said, ” that you possess that necessary firm hand.”

I was conscious in that brief moment of the magnetism of the man. The clear-cut features, the cool, light eyes, the mockery behind them all these I felt were but a mask hiding something which he was determined to keep hidden.

At that moment there was a knock on the door and Celestine Nansellock came in.

” I heard you were here, Connan,” she said, and I thought she seemed nervous. So he had that effect even on those of his own station.

” How news travels!” he murmured. ” My dear Celestine, it was good of you to come over. I was just making the acquaintance of our new governess. She tells me that Alvean is intelligent and needs discipline.”

” Of course she is intelligent!” Celestine spoke indignantly. ” I hope Miss Leigh is not planning to be too harsh with her. Alvean is a good child.”

Connan TreMellyn threw an amused glance in my direction. ” I don’t think Miss Leigh entirely agrees with that,” he said. ” You see our little goose as a beautiful swan, Celeste my dear.”

” Perhaps I am over fond ” ” Would you like me to leave now?” I suggested, for I had a great desire to get away from them.

” But I am interrupting,” cried Celestine.

” No,” I assured her. ” We had finished our talk, I believe.”

Connan TreMellyn looked in some amusement from her to me. It occurred to me that he probably found us equally unattractive. I was sure that neither of us was the least like the woman he would admire.

” Let us say it is to be continued,” he said lightly. ” I fancy, Miss Leigh, that you and I will have a great deal more to discuss, regarding my daughter.”

I bowed my head and left them together.

In the schoolroom tea was laid, ready for me. I felt too excited to eat, and when Alvean did not appear I guessed she was with her father.

At five o’clock she still had not put in an appearance, so I summoned Daisy and sent her to find the child and to remind her that from five to six we had work to do.

I waited. I was not surprised because I bad expected Alvean to rebel.

Her father had arrived and she preferred to be with him rather than come to me for an hour of our reading.

I wondered what would happen when the child refused to come to the schoolroom. Could I go down to the punch room or the drawing room or wherever they were and demand that she return with me?

Celestine was with them and she would take her stand on Alvean’s side against me.

I heard footsteps on the stairs. The door of Alvean’s room which led into the schoolroom was opened, and there stood Connan TreMellyn holding Alvean by the arm.

Alvean’s expression astonished me. She looked so unhappy that I found myself feeling sorry for her. Her father was smiling and I thought he looked like a satyr, as though the situation which caused pain to Alvean and embarrassment to me amused him and perhaps for these reasons. In the back ground was Celestme.

“Here she is,” announced Connan TreMellyn.

“Duty is duty, my daughter,” he said to Alvean. ” And when your governess summons you to your lessons, you must obey.”

Alvean muttered and I could see that she was hard put to it to restrain her sobs: ” But it is your first day, Papa.”

” But Miss Leigh says there are lessons to be done, and she is in command.”

“Thank you, Mr. TreMellyn,” I said.

“Come and sit down, Alvean.”

Alvean’s expression changed as she looked at me. All the wistfulness was replaced by anger and a fierce hatred.

” Connan,” Celestine said quietly, ” it is your first day back, you know, and Alvean so looked forward to your coming.”

He smiled but I thought how grim his mouth was.

” Discipline,” he murmured. ” That, Celeste, is of the utmost importance. Come, we will leave Alvean with her governess.”

He inclined his head in my direction, while Alvean threw a pleading glance at him which he quite obviously ignored.

The door shut leaving me alone with my pupil.

That incident had taught me a great deal. Alvean adored her father and he was indifferent to her. My anger against him increased as my pity for the child grew. Small wonder that she was a difficult child. What could one expect when she was such an unhappy one? I saw her . ignored by the father , whom she loved, spoiled by Celestine Nansellock. Between them they were doing their best to ruin the girl.

I would have liked Connan TreMellyn better, I told myself, if he had decided to forget discipline on his first day back, and devote a little time to his daughter’s company.

Alvean was rebellious all that evening, but I insisted on her going to bed at her usual time. She told me she hated me, though there was no need for her to have mentioned a fact which was apparent.

I felt so disturbed when she was in her bed that I slipped out of the house and went into the woods, where I sat on a fallen tree trunk, brooding.

It had been a hot day and there was a deep stillness in the woods.

I wondered whether I was going to keep this Job. It was not easy to say at this stage, and I was not sure whether I wanted to go or stay.

There were so many things to keep me. There was, for one thing, my interest in Gillyflower; there was my desire to wipe the rebellion from Alvean’s heart. But I felt less eagerness for these tasks now that I had seen the Master.

I was a little afraid of the man although I could not say why. I was certain that he would leave me alone, but there was something magnetic about him, some quality which made it difficult for me to put him out of my mind. I thought more of dead Alice than I had before, because I could not stop myself wondering what sort of person she could have been.

I amused him in some way. Perhaps because I was so unattractive in his eyes; perhaps because he knew that I belonged to that army of women who are obliged to earn their living and are so dependent on the whim of people like himself. Was there a streak of sadism in his nature? I believed so. Perhaps poor Alice had found it intolerable. Perhaps she, like poor Gillyflower’s mother, had walked into the sea.

As I sat there I heard the sound of footsteps coming through the wood and I hesitated, wondering whether to wait there or go back to the house.