"He said she lost her mother when she was a child--and he told me her father had died suddenly, a few years since, of heart complaint."
"Well, and what else?--Never mind now! Here is somebody coming."
The person was only one of the servants. Mirabel felt grateful to the man for interrupting them. Animated by sentiments of a precisely opposite nature, Francine spoke to him sharply.
"No, miss." He turned to Mirabel. "Miss Brown wishes to speak to you, sir, if you are not e ngaged."
Francine controlled herself until the man was out of hearing.
"Upon my word, this is too shameless!" she declared indignantly. "Emily can't leave you with me for five minutes, without wanting to see you again. If you go to her after all that you have said to me," she cried, threatening Mirabel with her outstretched hand, "you are the meanest of men!"
He _was_ the meanest of men--he carried out his cowardly submission to the last extremity.
"Only say what you wish me to do," he replied.
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