should I have sent for you all the way to
Richmond? It was only to try you that I sent
you out in the rain, all alone."

"To try me?" repeated Hester.

"To try what you were made of," said Lady
Humphrey, provoked at the girl's quiet amazement.
She had counted upon more effusion,
more gratitude and delight, from the fervent
little Hester of other days. She forgot how
the fervour had been crushed by her own
will, that the other days were gone, and that
important years had passed over Hester's
head, of the experiences of which she knew
nothing.

"Only to try what you were made of," said
Lady Humphrey. "To find out whether you
had a spirit of your own, were proud and
independent as I should wish to see you. Your
behaviour has been perfect, and I am now quite
content."

Hester's wet garments were clinging to her,
but her thoughts did not reproach Lady
Humphrey for having put her to an uncomfortable
test. She only said mechanically, still lost in
her wonder:

"I am glad you are content, Lady
Humphrey."

"And I am glad that you are glad," said the
lady. " You and I must become better friends.
I intend that you shall be my visitor here for
some time. You shall do as you please, and
we will send away all this satin to Mrs.
Gossamer to be finished by other hands. I will
take you to the theatre, and we will buy
some pretty gowns. And now," finished Lady
Humphrey, not being able to think of any
other tempting bait which she could hold out
upon the moment, "now I think you had
better eat your supper, and go to bed. And
we will talk of a great many other things in
the morning."

Hester did as she was bidden, not, however,
without some rueful regrets about Baby Johnny
and a drive to London. The memory of her
chill reception still clung round her, as
pertinaciously as the wet cloak round her shoulders.
She was too much taken by surprise to be ready
to make an effort to forget it. She would forget
it in time, if permitted to do so, but this kindness
of Lady Humphrey was so new and
curious, and Lady Humphrey's appearance
agreed with it so badly, that Hester's poor wits
were astray with trying to comprehend the
sudden change.

"I wonder what she wants with me," was
Hester's first thought, after the shock of the
surprise was over. It never struck her that such
a reflection was ungracious. That Lady
Humphrey, after all these lonely years of neglect,
had drawn her to her side again from an
impulse of compassion or tenderness, was a belief
that must be slow to enter Hester's mind.
She had been well grounded by the lady
herself in the conviction that she was a creature
to be put away out of sight, or drawn
forth and made use of, according to the
emergency of the moment. Picked up and put
down, called out and sent back again, it was
thus that Lady Humphrey's will had been
wrought on her; and surely Lady Humphrey
was Lady Humphrey still.

So Hester sat on the corner of her pretty
bed, and had her wonders all to herself. Once
more, suddenly, she found herself surrounded
with the bright dainty things she had so loved
long ago. Here were the same silken hangings;
the pictures; the chair with the little
low seat, and the tall carved back. She went
round the room on tiptoe, touching her old
friends, and making sure she was awake. "But
how long will it last?" said Hester, sighing;
"how long will it last? And I had rather,"
she soliloquised further, shaking her fair head
at the flame of her candle, "I had rather far
go back at once with that satin to the workroom
than sit waiting here for her anger or her
coldness to return. And I will never be her
dependant, so long as my fingers can hold a
needle."

These were Hester's first impulses of feeling
about this change: dread and distrust.
Farther on towards morning, however, when
the rain had ceased, and Lady Humphrey
was asleep, other thoughts grew out of the
night and took their place. Rest and comfort
did their work, and brought gratitude and
peace. And Hester fell asleep thanking God
that Lady Humphrey was Lady Humphrey no
longer.

Every day after this was a surprise to Hester
a pleasure, a trouble, a confusion. Most
strange it was to see how Lady Humphrey's
goodhumour lasted; most strange to feel the
effort it cost her to be kind; almost fearful the
determination with which the difficulty was
conquered. The frown would loom out, but
the smile was always ready to shine it down.
The voice, involuntarily harsh, would smooth
itself. The hand was ever generously open.
But the bounty crushed Hester, and the
caresses made her fear.

Yet what was there she could fear from
Lady Humphrey? Nothing worse than to be
sent back to Mrs. Gossamer and the workroom.
A needle in her fingers gave her courage.
And in the meanwhile it was pleasant to
play the lady for a time, with the long day all
leisure, and the gardens and the pictures close
at hand.

So Lady Humphrey was pleased with her
own success.

CHAPTER VI.   HOW HESTER WAS TAKEN TO A
BALL.

IT seemed that fate took that puzzle of Lady
Humphrey's in hand; with a few simple shakes
and touches made the pieces fit together, and
dropped it in all simplicity into the lady's
lap.

When Pierce Humphrey came out, and found
Hester at Hampton Court, he was pleased,
astonished, confounded, at the recollection of
his own ill temper. And it pleased his mother
now that he, Pierce, should be attentive to and