“I think it is better to say that—that I do not want you to keep secrets for me.”
“Oh! all right, my dear—all right; you can please yourself exactly. I’ll be able to explain just how I saw you with the dog in the room, and the dead rat. Kitty will think you did it on purpose.”
“Well, you must admit that it looks like it; you up there, and the rat dead, and Jack—_your_ Jack—having done it. However, please yourself. We will see when the time comes what you will choose. We will not decide at present. Now then, which is the best of the books?”
“I don’t know. Here is _The Fairchild Family_.”
“Never heard of it. It sounds goody-goody.”
“It is rather nice,” said Nan. “And here is _Ministering Children_.”
“Oh! I do not want anything of the religious order.”
“And here is—oh! here is a charming book—_The Heir of Redclyffe_, by Miss Yonge.”
“I have read it before, but I will glance through it again; just toss the volume across to me.”
Nan brought it in a meek fashion to Augusta, who took it, raised her eyes to the little dark face, and smiled.
“You are not a bad sort,” she said; “and you can be useful to me. I mean to make you useful. Now sit down, Nan, and do not make a noise. Read anything you like, only don’t disturb me.”
Augusta buried herself against some comfortable cushions, opened her book, and was lost in its contents. Nan, feeling sick and miserable, her ankle aching terribly, took the next most comfortable chair.
By-and-by there came a message for Augusta to go downstairs to Mrs. Richmond.
“That is right,” she said, jumping up. “How do I look, Nan? Hair tidy—eh?”
“Pretty well! If you talk in that tone I shall send you for a brush and comb and glass. Let me look at myself through your eyes. What big, dark eyes you have! They are very pretty. You will be a handsome girl by-and-by.”
“Shall I?” replied Nan, much comforted, not to say charmed, by these words.
“Of course you will. And you are a nice little thing—quite nice. Now, keep the fire alive, and look after _my_ Jack until I return.”
Augusta Duncan was considered by her elders to be one of the best girls in existence. She was always neat and nice to look at; she had refined, gracious, gentle manners. At school she learnt her lessons correctly, and took place after place in form, rising by slow but sure degrees to the head of the school. But Augusta was not a favourite with her companions. Even they themselves did not always know why this was the case. The fact is, they were a little afraid of her; she had a way of getting them under her thumb, as she expressed it. Augusta was never happy in any house until she had got the other girls into this position. She had no special reason to make Nan Esterleigh’s life a misery; but the moment she saw the little girl she grasped the opportunity, and her favourite passion being immediately fed, her appetite grew greater every moment. She was now resolved to have complete power over Nan, who, she felt certain, could be very useful to her.