There came a pause for a short space after dinner, when Dr. Maryland had gone back to his study.  Then there was a demand for Primrose; one of her Sunday school children wanted her.  Wych Hazel and Mrs. Coles were left alone.  Mrs. Coles changed her seat for one nearer the young lady.

‘I have been really anxious to see you, my dear Miss Kennedy,’ she began, benignly.

‘Some one of my escapades has reached her ears!’ thought the young lady to herself; ’now if I can give her a good, harmless, mental shock,—­just to bear it out!—­I certainly will.—­That sounds very kind,’ she said aloud.

’Yes,—­you know I heard so much about you when you were a child, and your connection with this house, and all;—­and your whole romantic story; and now when I learned that you were grown up and here again, I really wanted to see you and see how you looked.  I must, you know,’ she added, with her peculiar smile.

There was so much in these words that was incomprehensible, that Wych Hazel for the moment was at a loss for any answer at all; and waited for what would come next, with eyes rather larger than usual.  Mrs. Coles went on, scanning her carefully as she spoke, that same smile, half flattering, half assuming, wreathing her lips.

’I did want very much to see you—­I was curious, and I am.  Do tell me—­how does it feel to have two guardians?  I should think, you know, that one would be enough for comfort; and the other is sure to be a jealous guardian.  Perhaps you don’t mind it,’ added Mrs. Coles, with a face so amiable, that if Wych Hazel had been a cat it would have certainly provoked a spring.

The first thing that struck the girl in this speech, was a certain sinister something, which by sheer instinct of self-defence threw her into position at once.  The outward expression of it this time, seemed to be just one of the poor jokes about Mr. Rollo.  ‘Have you two guardians?’ Mr. Nightingale had said.

‘O sometimes I mind one, and sometimes I do not!’ she answered, with a laugh.

‘Ah, but which one do you mind?’ said Mrs. Coles shrewdly.  ’Or do they both pull together?  To be sure, that is to be hoped, for your sake.  It is a very peculiar position!  And, I should think, trying.  It would be to me.’

‘People say there are a good many trying situations in life,’ said Wych Hazel meekly, watching her antagonist.  Why did the lady seem to her such?

‘Yes!’ said Mrs. Coles with half a sigh.  ’And to be young and rich and gifted with beauty and loaded with admiration, isn’t the worst; if it is trying to enjoy it all between two guardians.  Do they keep you very close, my dear?’

(’I think she is a little crazy,’ thought the girl.  ’No wonder—­with such eyes.’—­) ’A dozen could hardly do that, ma’am, thank you.  Makes a more difficult fence to leap, of course—­but when you are used to the exercise—­’

Mrs. Coles laughed, a thin peculiar sort of laugh, not enjoyable to the hearer, though seeming to be enjoyed by the person from whom it proceeded.  She had the air of being amused.