“The last governess? She was also young and pretty⁠—almost as young and almost as pretty, miss, even as you.”

“Ah, then, I hope her youth and her beauty helped her!” I recollect throwing off. “He seems to like us young and pretty!”

“Oh, he did ,” Mrs. Grose assented: “it was the way he liked everyone!” She had no sooner spoken indeed than she caught herself up. “I mean that’s his way⁠—the master’s.”

I was struck. “But of whom did you speak first?”

She looked blank, but she colored. “Why, of him .”

“Of the master?”