tears,--that it brought a return of
the same overflow, which served as a substitute for conversation until
Miss Badlam entered the apartment.

Miss Cynthia followed the same general course of remark. They could not
help Myrtle's going if they tried. She had always maintained that, if
they had only once broke her will when she was little, they would have
kept the upper hand of her; but her will never was broke. They came
pretty near it once, but the child would n't give in.

Miss Cynthia went to the door with Mr. Bradshaw, and the conversation
immediately became short and informal.

"Demonish pretty business! All up for a year or more,--hey?"

Don't blame me,--I couldn't stop her."

"Give me her address,--I 'll write to her. Any young men teach in the
school?"

"Can't tell you. She'll write to Olive and Bathsheba, and I'll find out
all about it."

Murray Bradshaw went home and wrote a long letter to Mrs. Clymer Ketchum,
of 24 Carat Place, containing many interesting remarks and inquiries,
some of the latter relating to Madam Delacoste's institution for the
education of young ladies.

While this was going on at Oxbow Village, Myrtle was establishing herself
at the rather fashionable school to which Mr. Gridley had recommended
her. Mrs. or Madam Delacoste's boarding-school had a name which on the
whole it deserved pretty well. She had some very good instructors for
girls who wished to get up useful knowledge in case they might marry
professors or ministers. They had a chance to learn music, dancing,
drawing, and the way of behaving in company. There was a chance, too, to
pick up available acquaintances, for many rich people sent their
daughters to the school, and it was something to have been bred in their
company.

There was the usual division of the scholars into a first and second set,
according to the social position, mainly depending upon the fortune, of
the families to which they belonged. The wholesale dealer's daughter
very naturally considered herself as belonging to a different order from
the retail dealer's daughter. The keeper of a great hotel and the editor
of a widely circulated newspaper were considered as ranking with the
wholesale dealers, and their daughters belonged also to the untitled
nobility which has the dollar for its armorial bearing. The second set
had most of the good scholars, and some of the prettiest girls; but
nobody knew anything about their families, who lived off th