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called in the police … people would have known. The disgrace would have been terrible … for my father. I could see that I had to get away …”
    “You must write to me, Lilias. Give me your address. You did tell me, but I want it written down. I’m going to find out who took the necklace out of my room and put it in yours. I know someone did. Perhaps it was Hamish.”
    “Why? Just because he was caught with Kitty? This isn’t the same thing. I could understand his stealing the necklace, but if he had done so he would want to sell it right away. There isn’t any reason why he should try to incriminate me.”
    “Perhaps he wanted revenge. Had you done something he didn’t like?”
    “I hardly know him. He never even looks at me.”
    “Someone must have done it. What about Ellen?”
    “Why? What would be the point?”
    “Whichever way you look at it, there seems to be no reason.”
    “Thank you, Davina, for your trust. I shall never forget it.”
    “Oh, Lilias. It’s what I’ve dreaded … your going away. Though … I never thought it would be like this.”
    “Write to me and I’ll write to you. I’ll let you know what happens.”
    “At least you have your family to go to. They’ll be kind and understanding.”
    “They will believe in my innocence. They will never believe that I could be a thief.”
    Mrs. Kirkwell came in. She looked grim and resolute.
    “Miss Davina!” she said reprovingly, surprised, I supposed, to find me there.
    “I think this is a great mistake,” I said.
    Mrs. Kirkwell ignored that and said: “What about this packing? I see you haven’t begun yet.”
    I went back to my room. I thought of all that had happened in a short time: my mother’s death, Kitty’s misdemeanour which had resulted in her dismissal—and now Lilias.
    How DREARY the house was without her. She had been my special friend for so long, and I had known that I would miss her; what I had not realised was how much. I felt very melancholy.
    A few days after Lilias had left, my father sent for me. He was in his study, unsmiling and forbidding.
    “I wanted to speak to you, Davina,” he said. “It is about a governess.”
    I stared at him. For the moment I thought he had discovered the real thief and let myself fancy that Lilias was coming back.
    “You are not yet fully educated,” he went on. “I had considered the idea of sending you away to a finishing school, but I have decided against that. So there will be a governess.”
    “A new governess, but …”
    He looked at me with faint exasperation.
    “A new one, of course. I myself will make sure that this time I engage someone who is reliable and is not going to shock us all by stealing our property.”
    I flushed and began: “I do not believe …”
    He went on as though I had not spoken: “This one will be able to teach a great deal you should know. Deportment, good manners. It will not be so much a schoolroom governess as someone who will be able to equip you with social graces.”
    I was not listening. How foolish of me to think even for a moment that he was going to say that Lilias was coming back.
    “Miss Grey will be arriving at the end of the week.”
    “Miss Grey …”
    The irritation showed again. “I am sure that Miss Grey will give every satisfaction.”
    I came out of the study, dazed and very sad.
    I knew I was not going to like Miss Grey. How should I stop comparing her with Lilias?
    And a few days later Miss Zillah Grey arrived.
    The Governess
    THE HOUSEHOLD was in a state of disbelief. Miss Zillah Grey astonished them all; and what was most amazing was that my father had engaged her.
    She was the sort of person whom people would turn to look at when they passed her in the street. She had what I can only call a flaunting manner. Her clothes, her gestures, everything about her seemed to be saying “Look at me.”
    She was definitely not what Mrs. Kirkwell would call “ladylike” but she was very affable to everyone and within a