"This was a question the answer to which demanded some consideration. For once in a way, my dear Phil, your generally ready and quick-witted Fan was undoubtedly nonplussed.
"'Suppose I answer the question for you,' said Mrs. Melray presently, with a smile which brought both rows of her pearly teeth into view; but, for all that, it was not a pleasant smile by any means.
"'The story in question having come under the notice of my estimable brother-in-law, and he being satisfied that, as far as some of the incidents it treated of were concerned, it could refer to one case and no other, brought you, my dear Miss Sudlow, to Loudwater House, hoping, by your help (that is to say, by matching one woman against another) to be able to sift to the bottom sundry statements embodied in the opening pages of the narrative, as to the truth or falsehood of which neither he nor anyone else had any knowledge whatever. Finding, after a time, that your design was no nearer its fulfilment than at first, you took the only step left open to you--you gave me the story itself to read, hoping to gain goodness only knows what advantage thereby. Tell me, now, are my surmises, or guesses, or whatever you like to call them, very wide of the mark?'
"This, as you must admit, was very plain speaking indeed, and if I had been taken aback before, I was doubly so now. Her blue eyes were bent on me as she finished speaking with a sort of hard keenness in their concentrated gaze, such as heretofore I should not have deemed them capable of expressing. One thing was clear to me, that she was labouring under an altogether erroneous belief, of which it became my duty at once to disabuse her.
"'If you are under the impression, Mrs. Melray,' I said, 'as your words seem to imply, that I was invited here by your brother-in-law to act as a sort of private detective, or, in other words, to play the part of a spy on you and your actions, I can only say that you are wholly mistaken. I am here to fill the post of Freddy's governess, and with no ulterior motive of any kind. It was entirely of my own accord, and unprompted by anyone, that I yesterday gave you the story, "How, and Why" to read. At the same time, I admit that when I put it into your hands it was with the object of enabling you, should you feel so disposed, to disprove certain allegations, which, as I take it, can refer to no other person than yourself.'