When Mrs. Agnes had finished this, Maddy began to understand her
position, and into her white face the hot blood poured indignantly.
Wholly inexperienced, she had never dreamed that a governess was not
worthy to sit at the same table with her employer, that she must never
enter the parlors unbidden, or intrude herself in any way. No wonder
that her cheeks burned at the degradation, or that, for an instant,
she felt like defying the proud woman to her face. But the angry words
trembling on her tongue were repressed as she remembered her
grandfather's teachings; and with a bow as haughty as any Mrs. Agnes
could have made, and a look on her face which could not easily be
forgotten, she left the room, and in a kind of stunned bewilderment
sought the garden, where she could, unseen, give way to her feelings.
Once alone, the torrent burst forth, and burying her face in the soft
grass, she wept bitterly, never hearing the step coming near, and not
at first heeding the voice which asked what was the matter. Guy
Remington, too, had come out into the garden, accidentally wandering
that way, and so stumbling upon the little figure crying in the grass.
He knew it was Maddy, and greatly surprised to find her thus, asked
what was the matter. Then, as she did not hear him, he laid his hand
gently upon her shoulder, compelling her to look up. In all her
imaginings of Guy, she had never associated him with the man who had
so puzzled and confused her, and now she did not for a time suspect
the truth. She only thought him a guest at Aikenside; some one come
with Guy, and her degradation seemed greater than before. She was not
surprised when he called her by name; of course he remembered her,
just as she did him; but she did wonder a little what Mrs. Agnes would
say, could she know how kindly he spoke to her, lifting her from the
grass and leading her to a rustic seat at no great distance from them.
"Now, tell me why you are crying so?" he said, brushing from her silk
apron the spot of dirt which had settled upon it. "Are you homesick?"
he continued, and then Maddy burst out again.
She forgot that he was a stranger, forgot everything except that he
sympathized with her.
"Oh, sir," she sobbed, "I was so happy here till they came home, Mrs.
Remington and Mr. Guy. I never thought it was a disgrace to be a
governess; never heard it was so considered, or that I was not good
enough to eat with them till she told me this. Oh, dear, dear!" and
choked with tears Maddy stopped a moment to take breath.