w. It was really necessary to save his
pretty girls. He was a man who meant well, but acted foolishly. The
school would be superb--the very first of its kind in Scotland. She
wanted English children to come to it. She wanted it for a short time
to be a mixed school, but that scheme would probably die out
eventually. Her great object at the present moment was to secure
worthy pupils for her dear friend, and to introduce the very best boys
and girls into the Palace of the Kings, one of the most beautiful homes
of the great Duke of Ardshiel. The terms for weekly pupils would
necessarily be high--namely, two hundred pounds a year; while the terms
for those boys and girls who spent all their time, excluding the
holidays, at the great school would be still higher, even as much as
two hundred and fifty pounds a year. But the education was worth the
price, for where was there another school in the whole of the United
Kingdom to compare with the Palace of the Kings? The very best
teachers from Edinburgh would come, if necessary, to the school; and
what centre so great as Edinburgh for learning? The best foreign
governesses were to be employed. An elderly tutor or two were also to
live in the house. These were to be clergymen and married men.

Having done her work in Edinburgh, Miss Delacour proceeded to London,
and soon had the happiness of securing Master Henry de Courcy Anstel,
the Lady Leucha Villiers, the Lady Barbara Fraser, the Lady Dorothy
Fraser, the Hon. Daisy Watson, Miss Augusta Fane, Miss
Featherstonhaugh, Miss Margaret Drummond, Master Roger Carden, Master
Ivor Chetwode, Miss Mary Barton, Miss Nancy Greenfield, Miss Isabella
Macneale, and Miss Jane Calvert. There were many more to follow, but
she felt that she had done well for her friend with this number, and
that the noble old Palace was well started.

After a few days spent first with Mrs Constable and then with Mr
Lennox, and having heard the good news from her friend Miss Delacour,
Mrs Macintyre went to London to select suitable teachers. The school
was put into the hands of the best decorators, upholsterers, and
builders. The furniture was polished; the gardens were remade; in
short, all was in readiness for that happy day in September when the
greatest private school in Scotland was to be opened, and opened with
eclat.

The parents of the children were all invited to see the great school
the day before lessons began, and they could not help