You might
not care to speak plainly, of course, but you can easily make them
perceive the situation, without offending them, or saying anything which
an old servant might not say, in a case like this."
"But, madam," said La Fleur, "what's to hinder their stopping here?
There's no spot on earth that could suit them better, to my way of
thinking."
"La Fleur," said Miss Panney, regarding the other with moderate severity,
"you ought to know that when people see a young woman like Miss Drane
brought to live in a house with a handsome young gentleman, who, to all
intents and purposes, is keeping a bachelor's hall,--for that girl
upstairs is entirely too young to be considered a mistress of a
house,--and when they know that the young lady's mother is a lady in
impoverished circumstances, the people are bound to say, when they talk,
that that young woman was brought here on purpose to catch the master of
the house, and I don't think, La Fleur, that you would like to hear that
said of Mrs. Drane."
As she listened, the bodily eyes of La Fleur were contracted until they
were almost shut, but her mental eyes opened wider and wider.
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