"And I may still turn it to your advantage, my lady," Fanny ventured to
add, "if you will consent to say nothing to anybody of your having a
servant who has learnt French."
Iris looked at her coldly and gravely. "Must I remind you," she said,
"that you are asking my help in practicing a deception on my husband?"
"I shall be sent away," Fanny answered, "if you tell my master what I
have told you."
This was indisputably true. Iris hesitated. In her present situation,
the maid was the one friend on whom she could rely. Before her
marriage, she would have recoiled from availing herself, under any
circumstances, of such services as Fanny's reckless gratitude had
offered to her. But the moral atmosphere in which she was living had
begun, as Mrs. Vimpany had foreseen, to exert its baneful influence.
The mistress descended to bargaining with the servant.
"Deceive the doctor," she said, "and I well remember that it may be for
my good." She stopped, and considered for a moment. Her noble nature
rallied its forces, and prompted her next words: "But respect your
master, if you wish me to keep your secret. I forbid you to listen to
what my lord may say, when he speaks with Mr. Vimpany to-morrow."
"I have already told your ladyship that I shall have no chance of
listening to what they say to each other, out of doors," Fanny
rejoined. "But I can watch the doctor at any rate. We don't know what
he may not do when he is left by himself, while my master is at the
meeting. I want to try if I can follow that rogue through the streets,
without his finding me out. Please to send me on an errand to Paris
to-morrow."
"You will be running a terrible risk," her mistress reminded her, "if
Mr. Vimpany discovers you."
"I'll take my chance of that," was the reckless reply.
Iris consented.