I love singing. When I'm an actress
I must have songs. Mr. Gay says so."
"Then you've not been on the stage?"
"No, but I hope I shall be soon. I dream of nothing else."
Vane looked at her inquiringly. To his mind the girl seemed made for
love. Surely a love affair must have been the cause of the escapade on
London Bridge. How came she to be alone with a gallant in his carriage
at that time of night? But he dared not put any questions to her. Her
love affairs were nothing to him--so he tried to persuade himself.
He was now busy in tying up the manuscript in a sheet of paper and
Lavinia was thinking hard.
The question was, what was to become of her? She had no home, for she
had made up her mind she would not go back to her mother and Miss
Pinwell was equally impossible. This impeccable spinster would never
condone such an offence as that of which she had been guilty. Neither
did Lavinia wish the compromising affair to be known in the school and
talked about. She felt she had left conventional schooling for ever and
she yearned to go back to life--but not the same life in which her early
years had been passed.
Another worry was her shortness of money. She had but a trifle left out
of the guinea her brooch had fetched. In the old days she could have
soon earned a shilling or two by singing outside and inside taverns. But
what she had done as a beggar maid could not be thought of in her fine
clothes.
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