Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt Page A

governess.”
    I felt myself grow pink with indignation. ” Because I am a governess that is no reason why I should be forced to accept insults from strangers.”
    I rose from the tree trunk, but he laid a hand on my arm and said pleadingly: ” Please let us talk awhile. There is much I have to say to you. There are things you should know.”
    My curiosity overcame my dignity and I sat down.
    ” That’s better. Miss Leigh. You see I remember your name.”
    ” Most courteous of you! And how extraordinary that you should first notice a mere governess’s name and then keep it in your memory.”
    ” You are like a hedgehog,” he retorted. ” One only has to mention the word governess’ and up come your spines. You will have to learn resignation. Aren’t we taught that we must be content in that station of life to which we have been called?”
    ” Since I resemble a hedgehog, at least I am not spineless.”
    He laughed and then was immediately sober. ” I do not possess second sight. Miss Leigh,” he said quietly. ” I know nothing of palmistry. I deceived you, Miss Leigh.”
    ” Do you think I was deceived for a moment?”
    ” For many moments. Until this one, in fact, you have thought of me with wonder.”
    ” Indeed, I have not thought of you at all.”
    ” More untruths! I wonder if a young lady with such little regard for veracity is worthy to teach our little Alvean.”
    ” Since you are a friend of the family your best policy would be to warn them at once.”
    ” But if Connan dismissed his daughter’s governess, bow sad that would be! I should wander through these woods without hope of meeting her.”
    “I see you are a frivolous person.”
    ” It’s true.” He looked grave. ” My brother was frivolous. My sister is the only commendable member of the family.”
    ” I have already met her.”
    ” Naturally. She is a constant visitor to Mount Mellyn. She dotes on Alvean.”
    ” Well, she is a very near neighbour.”
    ” And we. Miss Leigh, shall in future be very near neighbours How does that strike you?”
    ” Without any great force.”
    ” Miss Leigh, you are cruel as well as untruthful. I hoped you would be grateful for my interest. I was going to say, if ever things should become intolerable at Mount Mellyn you need only walk over to Mount Widden. There you would find me most willing to help. I feel sure that among my wide circle of acquaintances I could find someone who is in urgent need of a governess.”
    ” Why should I find life intolerable at Mount Mellyn?”
    ” It’s a tomb of a place, Connan is overbearing, Alvean is a menace to anyone’s peace, and the atmosphere since Alice’s death is not congenial.”
    I turned to him abruptly and said : ” You told me to beware of Alice.
    What did you mean by that? “
    ” So you remember?”
    ” It seemed a strange thing to say.”
    ” Alice is dead,” he said, ” but somehow she remains. That’s what I always feel at Mount Mellyn. Nothing was the same after the day she went.”
    ” How did she die?”
    ” You have not heard the story yet?”
    “No.”
    ” I should have thought Mrs. Polgrey or one of those girls would have told you. But they haven’t, eh? They’re probably somewhat in awe of the governess.”
    ” I should like to hear the story.”
    ” It’s a very simple one. The sort of thing which must hjappen in many a home. A wife finds life with her husband intolerable. She walks out with another man. It’s ordinary enough, you see. Only Alice’s story had a different ending.”
    He looked at the tips of his boots as he had when we were travelling in the train to Liskeard together. ” The man in the case was my brother,” he went on.
    ” Geoffry Nansellock!” I cried.
    ” So you have heard of him!”
    I thought of Gillyflower, whose birth had so distressed her mother that she had walked into the sea.
    ” Yes,” I said, ” I’ve heard of Geoffry Nansellock. He was evidently a philanderer.”
    ” It