"I'm not very old," remarked Nell, with a smile. "Perhaps I'm not old
enough to fill the position."

"Oh, for goodness' sake, don't throw a doubt upon your staying!" said
her ladyship quickly. "I'm so tired of old, or what I call old, people,
and I am sure you will do beautifully. For, though you are so young, you
look as if you could manage; and that is what I can't do--I mean manage
a house. I can talk--I can talk the hind leg off a donkey, as Archie
says"--she stopped, looking slightly embarrassed for a moment, and Nell
supposed that her ladyship alluded to Lord Wolfer--"but when it comes to
details, fortunately there is always somebody else."

While she had been speaking, Lady Wolfer had taken off her hat and
jacket, and flung them onto the book-and-paper-strewn couch.

"I'm just come in from a breakfast meeting to attend this one at home,"
she explained. "And I've got to go out again directly to a
committee--the Employment of Women Bureau. Have you ever heard of it?"

Nell shook her head.

"No? I'm half inclined to envy you. No, I'm not! If it weren't for my
work, I should go out of my mind."

She put her hand to her head, and for an instant a wearied, melancholy
expression flitted across her face, as if some hidden trouble had reared
its head and grinned at her.