irregular in their payments or went away leaving bills behind them; but Miss Fox-Seton’s payments were as regular as Saturday night, and, in fact, there had been times when, luck being against her, Emily had gone extremely hungry during a whole week rather than buy her lunches at the ladies’ tea-shops with the money that would pay her rent.  In the honest minds of the Cupps, she had become a sort of possession of which they were proud.  She seemed to bring into their dingy lodging-house a touch of the great world,—­that world whose people lived in Mayfair and had country-houses where they entertained parties for the shooting and the hunting, and in which also existed the maids and matrons who on cold spring mornings sat, amid billows of satin and tulle and lace, surrounded with nodding plumes, waiting, shivering, for hours in their carriages that they might at last enter Buckingham Palace and be admitted to the Drawing-room.  Mrs. Cupp knew that Miss Fox-Seton was “well connected;” she knew that she possessed an aunt with a title, though her ladyship never took the slightest notice of her niece.  Jane Cupp took “Modern Society,” and now and then had the pleasure of reading aloud to her young man little incidents concerning some castle or manor in which Miss Fox-Seton’s aunt, Lady Malfry, was staying with earls and special favorites of the Prince’s.  Jane also knew that Miss Fox-Seton occasionally sent letters addressed “To the Right Honourable the Countess of So-and-so,” and received replies stamped with coronets.  Once even a letter had arrived adorned with strawberry-leaves, an incident which Mrs. Cupp and Jane had discussed with deep interest over their hot buttered-toast and tea.

Emily Fox-Seton, however, was far from making any professions of grandeur.  As time went on she had become fond enough of the Cupps to be quite frank with them about her connections with these grand people.  The countess had heard from a friend that Miss Fox-Seton had once found her an excellent governess, and she had commissioned her to find for her a reliable young ladies’ serving-maid.  She had done some secretarial work for a charity of which the duchess was patroness.  In fact, these people knew her only as a well-bred woman who for a modest remuneration would make herself extremely useful in numberless practical ways.  She knew much more of them than they knew of her, and, in her affectionate admiration for those who treated her with human kindness, sometimes spoke to Mrs. Cupp or Jane of their beauty or charity with a very nice, ingenuous feeling.  Naturally some of her patrons grew fond of her, and as she was a fine, handsome young woman with a perfectly correct bearing, they gave her little pleasures, inviting her to tea or luncheon, or taking her to the theatre.